Why are ants so strong?

Answer 1

Ants are strong because they are small...if an ant was the size of a human, it wouldn't be able to breathe (no lungs...insects breath via tubes that bring air directly into their bodies) and probably wouldn't be able to move. As an animal gets bigger, its mass increases faster than its strength. If you were the size of an ant, you might be even stronger. Of course, since ants have an exoskeleton, with their supports (bones) on the outside, their muscles attach differently than ours--our bones are on the inside.

Answer 2

Ants do have muscles. The reason they are so strong is because of their size; humans have far bigger muscles but we also have to carry a lot more weight with them proportionally. Ants have a higher muscle to body weight ratio then we do. When you scale up animals they become 100 times stronger but 1000 times heavier, which requires the muscles to deal more with the body weight of the animal then with the manipulating of objects.

Hope that helps

Answer 3

Yes ants have muscles. There are muscles in the ants head which control the mandibles and antennae. The most prominent place that you will find muscles in ants is in the thorax (mesosoma) section.

The muscles in the thorax (a.k.a. the mesosoma) extend out to the first joint of the ant's leg, called the coxa. There is a pair of muscles (adductors and abductors) on either side of the coxa that help the ant move the legs back and forth. There is another pair of muscles (levators and depressors) that help the ant lift the leg and put it back down.


As for the rest of the ant anatomy....here's a little more info:


The anatomy of ants is very interesing. Use this diagram , that shows the main body parts of ants, and the information below to learn about about the anatomy of ants. The first thing you will notice in this diagram of an ant's anatomy is the three main divisions. The head, the trunk, and the metasoma. Ant bodies, like other insects have an exoskeleton . Their skeleton is on the outside - not covered by skin, muscles, and tissue like humans. The head of an ant has several imporatant parts. First the eyes. Ant eyes are a lot like flies. They have many small eyes connected together. This enables ants to see movement very well. Also Attached to the head of the ant are two feelers. The feelers are special organs of smell that help ants communicate. If you have every seen an ant find a food source, it is not long before the ant communicates to his friends and their are many ants there. Ants release pheromones (chemicals that have different smells) to communicate with each other. The feelers pick up these smells as signals. The head also has two strong pinchers which are used to carry food, to dig, and to defend. Just inside the mouth is a small pocket where ants can store food. They can give this food to other ants in need. The trunk of the ant is where all 6 legs are attached. At the end of each leg is a sharp claw that helps ants climb and hang onto things. The metasoma of the ant is a poison sack. Ants are closely related to wasps and other stinging insects. Many types of ants have stingers and can inflict a very painful sting. This is a useful way to defend against the many predators ants have. Inside Ants do not have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and Carbon Dioxide leaves through the same holes. There are no blood vessels. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head back to the rear and then back up to the head again. The blood kind of coats the insides of the ants and is then sucked into the tube and pumped up to the head again. The nervous system of ants consists of a long nerve cord that also runs from head to rear with branches leading to the parts of the body, kind of like a human spinal cord.