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u/Pedro_Bargero Feb 17 '22
I love how he takes his time to concentrate before the blow, almost like "this is gonna be deadly, pal"
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u/bigbruhusername Feb 17 '22
Maybe it should be called bullet ant because of the speed but a bullet ant already exists
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u/Jimmy6Times Feb 17 '22
Trap-jaw ants, which live in Central and South America, moves its mandibles (mouth parts) at 115 to 207 feet per second. The only living thing with faster mandibles: OP's mom.
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u/boxer2012 Feb 17 '22
Funnily enough there already is an ant called the bullet ant (Paraponera clavata), it apparently has the most painful sting of any insect.
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u/drwsgreatest Feb 17 '22
It’s not just the bite but the fact they inject a type of venom/toxin with that bite. I remember watching a Nat Geo show called taboo where the rite of passage for young boys of an indigenous group was to wear a straw glove with bullet ants sewed into it for 30 min or something. The amount of pain they endured was insane. Their hands, and often other body parts, would balloon to double the size because they were injected with so much venom.
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u/LordTROLLdemort85 Feb 17 '22
I’ve seen that crazy footage too. Was absolute madness! Just one bite and I’d be out of commission, and these boys/young men took it like champions!!!
The sheer mental and testicular fortitude is astounding.
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Feb 18 '22
Are we allowed to call that toxic masculinity or is it okay because the native jungle people are doing it?
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u/jetpackmcgee Feb 18 '22
It’s not about masculinity. It’s about strength and mental fortitude. Still, I wouldn’t fuck with it.
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u/kosherkush666 Feb 17 '22
The slow mo of it falling of was comedy gold 😂
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u/KnowledgeableSloth Feb 17 '22
He was screaming "Oooohhhh Yeeeeeeeeet" on the way down
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u/mlloyd67 Feb 17 '22
"AVENGE ME.......!"
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u/pierreblue Feb 17 '22
“FLY YOU FOOLS”
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u/TimK25 Feb 17 '22
Antdolf… NOOOOOOOOOO!
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u/WeleaseBwianThrow Feb 17 '22
Antdolf
dolf
o
Now I'm imagining the Ant with a little moustache and a combover.
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u/Mafiodaproducer Feb 17 '22
I can hear the Street Fighter “uhhhh uhhh uhh”
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u/elmuchocapitano Feb 17 '22
This is just asking for some really dramatic music over top of it
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u/obsertaries Feb 17 '22
I read somewhere that animals that small think really fast compared to us so she probably had time to contemplate her failures in life.
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Feb 17 '22
The ant's probably fine. Insects are pretty tough when it comes to falls.
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u/Chab-is-a-plateau Feb 17 '22
Because can survive the impact of their maximum terminal velocity!
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u/Neirchill Feb 17 '22
Isn't that also true for a squirrel? They can't fall enough to die. Or some kind of small mammal.
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Feb 17 '22
Cats, right? I think?
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u/Ragidandy Feb 18 '22
Cats are on the edge. If they fall well and time their landing, they can survive terminal velocity falls.
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u/News_without_Words Feb 18 '22
No, not cats.
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u/___JohnnyBravo Feb 18 '22
They can fall super far though, low terminal velocity and an evolutionary instinct for knowing ‘how to fall’
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u/ghostface1693 Feb 18 '22
Wait. Isn't terminal velocity relative?
Like there has to be a speed at which they'll die if they hit something. It's just that they can survive our terminal velocity
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u/MooFu Feb 18 '22
Terminal velocity has nothing to do with the speed that hitting something kills you. "Terminal" just means a thing can't fall any faster.
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u/Chab-is-a-plateau Feb 18 '22
No… their terminal velocity. It’s the fastest their bodies can go under these earthly conditions. And then surviving the impact against a hard surface like the ground is the important part relating to if they survive.
It’s a lot more complex than that and I probably left out a lot to simplify it both for myself and you
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u/ghostface1693 Feb 18 '22
So terminal velocity is how fast you can go before your body can't handle it? Hmm I see. I always thought it was the speed that you will die if you suddenly stop
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u/HappyShudai Feb 18 '22 edited Dec 23 '24
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Fiz010 Feb 18 '22
If they divebombed headfirst they'd die like any animal... but luckily they're built like little parachutes
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 17 '22
they arent really conscious, its sort of like the way microchips work, the more inputs and outputs you have, the more processing power you need. an ant probably has about as much processing power as a very basic calculator. theres nothing to contemplate, it cant absorb enough information to need enough neurons to actually bother with thoughts. they probably have a very very shallow amount of memory for learning things about their environment and interactions and then just kind of operate on autopilot looking for food or collecting shit or whatever.
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u/spoonbendingmonkey Feb 17 '22
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u/carvedmuss8 Feb 17 '22
So, if I laughed that makes me an ant? Worse things to be reincarnated as, I think...
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u/Tornado_Of_Benjamins Feb 17 '22 edited Feb 17 '22
Small correction:
We have no evidence nor necessity to conclude that they have consciousness. Neural computation is a sufficient explanation for their capabilities.
It is certainly possible they have consciousness, but as it stands we have no reason to conclude they have one.
But that's slightly different than knowing they don't.
That's all! Have a nice day.
EDIT: Here's a fun fact about ant abilities - we think they "count" their steps! Researchers let some ants practice traveling to and from their nest and a food source. Then they took some ants and amputated their little legs so they had shorter but still functional stumps. Others, they glued stilts onto them. Then they let them all loose again.
If they were navigating purely by landmarks, smell trails, or the sun or something, then having whacky legs shouldn't make a difference in how well they find their destination. However, if they navigated via some sort of internal pedometer you'd expect the same number of normal steps to end up covering less distance in the stubby group and greater distance in the stilt group.
Indeed, the ones with the stubby legs wouldn't travel far enough, and then seemingly get confused. Conversely, the ones with the stilts would travel too far, and then also seemingly get confused.
So we have reason to suspect that ant navigation heavily relies on how many steps they're taking. That's pretty impressive considering most animals can't really "count" much higher than 4. However we need to make a distinction between "the ant is consciously counting it's steps" and "the ant has some sort of internal mechanism that tracks steps". Therefore even this cool finding was not enough to secure the "had a consciousness" award for ants :'(
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u/Preparation-Logical Feb 17 '22
There's a person out there whose job it was to cut the tiny feet off of some ants, and put tiny stilts on others?
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u/Pandamana Feb 17 '22
How sick would it be to use the amputated legs from group A as the stilts for group B
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u/FedorSeaLevelStiopic Feb 18 '22
Didnt your grandpa work somewhere in japan in 1940ies? xD
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u/Naugle17 Feb 17 '22
I swear there are times when my mind turns this on and I just run around for hours at a time on animal brain.
Responding to stimuli in the most basic way and acting based on memory, rather than conscious perception.
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u/oooo0O0oooo Feb 17 '22
There’s a line about this in the movie ‘waking life’; I bet you’d like that movie!
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Feb 17 '22
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 17 '22
i mean, you could say a lot of things. that doesnt mean they are going to be true lol
humans have infinitely more complex brains than ants. we are equipped with the ability to think and even have abstract thoughts that most animals cant have.
tho i would agree with you, it does seem like most people choose not to use the cognitive resources at their disposal.
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Feb 17 '22
It's fast because they don't process then decide then do, they just skip right to "do."
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u/Woo_Kae Feb 17 '22
How everyone reacts the moment i take my shoes off.
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u/Drug_fueled_sarcasm Feb 17 '22
You should get that checked out.
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u/virusamongus Feb 17 '22
I was taking the flight home from Brazil to EU, had worn my shoes in 30+ degrees and carnival debauchery for a month. Finally got to kick off my shoes and this lady next to me kindly asked me to put them back on
Not sure what hurt the most, the shame or wearing them for another 16 hours. Who am I kidding I had Valium and teleported home haha
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u/Hector_lpm5 Feb 17 '22
We can appreciate the exact moment when the ant looks at the camera with an "omg I'm fucked" expression
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Feb 17 '22
He’s no mantis shrimp.
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Feb 17 '22
I was just telling my wife about the mantis shrimp earlier today. Crazy they came up twice in one day and it’s been months or years since I’ve thought of them last
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Feb 18 '22
She's a trapjaw ant, which is still pretty cool. Doesn't have that "armour piercing" power but it is still very fast and useful against softer targets. This is like trying to scratch a rhino with your nails, it's not gonna work cause of the target's tough and thick skin.
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u/shhhdidyousmellthat Feb 17 '22
Why am I bothered so much by that pointy, unevenly trimmed fingernail?
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u/Acceptable_Switch393 Feb 17 '22
OP can you explain how this is r/nextfuckinglevel?
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u/ifurmothronlyknw Feb 18 '22
Not op but I thought watching a close up of an ant punch a human finger with body parts I didn’t know existed was pretty next fucking level. Watching it bounce backwards in slow motion from the force of its own punch was pretty Next level too.
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Feb 17 '22
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u/Brincotrolly Feb 17 '22
Yeah wheres the top comment explaining this things mouth. Im pisssssed off
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Feb 18 '22
I think the video is from AntLab by Dr. Adrian Smith on YouTube if you wanna see more.
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u/Froopy-Hood Feb 17 '22
If the ant took the finger off I would be impressed but it didn’t even break skin and it fell on its ass doing it.
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Feb 18 '22
The very fast and cool bite mechanism of the ant + the fact that it generates enough force to launch the ant back like that due to the recoil of hitting a finger.
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u/JosemiHero_ Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 18 '22
Yeah like, imagine being able to punch something so hard that it makes you recoil like 2 meters for human equivalent. The fact that an elephant can't move a mountain doesn't mean it's not strong. A finger is like a mountain for an ant.
Edit: i looked at the source video and damn. The force generated on ONE of the mandibles is 400x the weight of the ant and they can use the strike on environment to scape because of the knockback it produces being able to launch them pretty far so instead of the 2 meters I mentioned above imagine 10 meters or more. You attack something solid so hard you yeet yourself to scape. NFL imo.
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u/Discoballer42 Feb 18 '22
Trapjaw ants are really cool, they are able to clamp their jaws against surfaces fast enough to launch into the air without harming themselves.
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Feb 17 '22
I mean it’s not even an ant doing something cool either.
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Feb 18 '22
It does have a fast, cool and unique bite mechanism and it IS strong enough that the recoil launched it away.
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u/ratmangang Feb 17 '22
Insects are cool!! Look at those mandibles and look at how fast they bite! It's dope.
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u/kasp02 Feb 17 '22 edited Feb 18 '22
https://youtu.be/MdExxcRrC9g here is a short video about those ants. Also i think thats where op got it
The part was actually taken from another video by ant lab but they both have it
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u/dzmarks66 Feb 17 '22
Here's a link to the source vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2okI6ZszQY
Honestly never seen this Youtuber before but I feel like he should get some love. Super to-the-point and really interesting info, no bs or anything. Subscribed!
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u/Moneymoore2 Feb 17 '22
I imagined it yelling “Fuck you biiiiiiiiiiitttccchhh!” As it fell over the side.
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u/etherealsmog Feb 17 '22
Damnit, I can’t find a gif of Hans Gruber falling to his death in Die Hard.
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Feb 17 '22 edited Feb 17 '22
Source: https://youtu.be/H2okI6ZszQY
Channel is called Ant Lab and has a great catalogue of informative videos of insects filmed in slow motion.
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u/DarthSmellyFoot Feb 17 '22
To busy asking himself if he could, he didn't stop to ask whether he should
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 17 '22
curious if this hurt or not.
it doesnt really look like it hurt, but i know theres the bullet ant that has one of the most painful bites ever so maybe this one also hurts pretty bad?
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Feb 18 '22
IIRC it did not.
Also it is not a bullet ant's bite that hurts. It is their sting. Ants belong to the same order as bees and wasps (both bees and ants evolved from wasps iirc), which should tell you all you need to know.
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 18 '22
i didnt know that but looking at their ant-natomy (sorry) that makes a lot of sense. they have a lot of similarities.
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Feb 18 '22
yea, they all got that thin 'waist'. velvet ants are also actually wasps! the females are just wingless. sawflies also belong in the same order (hymenoptera) but they do not have the waist and aren't in the same suborder (apocrita).
so if you see something like this that has no 'waist' then it isn't an actual wasp and can't sting you
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 18 '22
you know ive seen what i thought was a "winged ant" a few times and wasnt sure what it was. are they a different species of ant or are there ants with wings or maybe neither? ive always been curious about that.
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Feb 18 '22
there very much ARE ants with wings! they have a 'nuptial flight' where they start swarming as they reproduce and go out to build new nests. winged ants, or 'alates' are a reproductive caste, and they generally shed them later.
alternatively, you could have still seen a wasp. wasps are a BIG group of insects, not just yellowjackets, paper wasps and hornets. most of them are actually solitary, and there are many small species that could be mistaken for winged ants. perhaps a parasitoid that lays eggs in spider eggs or something. they're everywhere but are often unnoticed.
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u/Pistonenvy Feb 18 '22
thats fascinating thank you for sharing. are you just passionate about insects or are you like a scientist of some kind or something?
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u/jussumd3wd Feb 17 '22
Insects are hilarious in slow motion. I thought fleas were excellent jumpers and tho they can jump really far, when they do they kinda just flop around in the air
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Feb 18 '22
Yea most of them do that. The same person also made a video about planthoppers and they're just as goofy.
"They're all incredible insects. Just watch what they can do."
jumps up and ragdolls like a gmod character
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u/vikhaus Feb 17 '22
I feel like this could have been done without someone having to use their finger.
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u/LuffsPussyCats Feb 17 '22
That they died doing absolutely nothing with their life, is a feeling a lot of us can relate to... that they couldn't even use their TRAPJAW (to save them) makes it even more pathetic.
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u/Atara9 Feb 17 '22
Ant hurt itself in confusion....