Heavy Load

Leaf-cutting ants are amazing - apart from the complex social

structures they are relentless workers, carrying ten times their body

weight. They transport pieces of leaves long ways back to their nest.

I used a 200mm macro and a flash to freeze part of the motion blur and

I am very happy with the result as I feel this image nicely shows the

dynamics and intricate behaviour of the species.

Mark,

A very nice photo, indeed!  

It is unfair to call it a heavy load or to talk about its lifting something 10 times it weight.  That sounds impressive because we cannot do that at our size.  However if we were the size of ant, we could.  The idea behind this is usually called the Surface Area Volume Ratio or Relationship.  Those who explain it sometimes get into the math so deeply that the novice to biology can't make sense of it, but some authors do a very good job using examples.  My favorite is that an Angel as depicted in classical Christian art, could not fly with the wings that the artist paints on them, if they were the same weight as a human.  In fact they would need wings of tremendous size (40 feet or so) and chest muscles (think of the turkey white meat) that would be nearly as big as the chest muscles of a horse.  Of course, angels might be thin wisps that don't fly but magically levitate, but then why are they painted with wings?

Regards,

Jerry

Buena luz, una toma muy  dinámica. Saludos