Gliding ants are arboreal ants of many different genera, each having developed the ability to guide its descent when falling from a tree, in order to land on the trunk before reaching the (potentially flooded, disorienting, or dangerous) ground.

Every single species of ant tested in the genus Cephalotes has this ability, as do many species of Pseudomyrmecinae, and some other groups. Cephalotes may have specifically evolved the unusually flattened, flanged head of that genus for this ability to steer in the air while falling.

Such ants even voluntarily leap into the air, for example, to escape predators, secure in the (genetic) knowledge that they have an 85% chance of landing successfully on the same tree, as opposed to 5% if they were simply parachuting like normal ants.

References

External links

Ants