Two different colonies of trap-jaw ants - found in Malaysia - can open and shut their enormous jaws - which are 1.5 times the size of their heads - at a speed of about 80 kmph. Scientists from the University of Illinois, in the U.S., studied the Mymoteras species and found that they have an extremely fast reactive time of 0.5 millisecond.
The mandibles open wide - at 280 degrees - and shut with an immense power of 21 Kilowatt/kg. They use a springlike mechanism to facilitate such high speed attacks.
These ants have evolved the high-performance, rapid spring-loaded escape behaviour to overcome their physical limitation against bigger predators such as beetles and crickets. The findings were recently published in Journal of Experimental Biology.