Handy legs

摘要

Ants have opposable spines on their forelegs that allow them to manipulate objects, say researchers. It was thought that ants used their legs for walking, and their jaws for carrying, nest-building, and so on. But Deby Cassill of the University of South Florida in St Petersburg and her colleagues saw queens of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta (pictured below) manipulating eggs and larvae with their forelegs. The team used electron microscopy to reveal the pincer-like paired spines on the limbs of several castes.