Super strength
Ant-Man and The Wasp both wear suits that allow them to shrink and also give them the proportionate strength of an ant.
Ants are well known for their super-strength, with some workers being able to carry up to 50 times their own body weight. Since ants – like other insects – have their skeletons on the outside, their muscles do not have to support much of their body weight, leaving them free to apply more strength to lifting.
In addition, smaller animals tend to have greater strength relative to their body weight. Even ants’ joints are strong: the neck joints of the common field ant Formica exsectoides can withstand 5,000 times the ant’s body weight.
Super speed
Ant-Man and The Wasp don’t have super speed – but real-life ants certainly do!
Saharan silver ants (Cataglyphis bombycina) can travel 100 times their body length in a second, making them one of the fastest animals on the planet. That’s like a 180-centimetre human running at 200 metres per second (or 720km per hour)! Usain Bolt, the all-time fastest person in the world, could only hit a maximum speed of 47km per hour.
Ants are not just fast runners – they can move other parts of their bodies with mind-boggling speed. Trap jaw ants (Odontomachus bauri) can slam their jaws shut at an incredible 137km per hour, one of the fastest movements in the animal kingdom. Trap jaw ants use their super-fast mandibles to catch their favourite prey: termites.
The jaws of trap jaw ants are also impressive defensive weapons and can be used to stun attacking predators such as spiders. These ants can even make a rapid retreat by striking their jaws against the ground. This “bouncer defence” throws the ant an astonishing 8cm into the air, the equivalent of an average-sized human jumping 40 metres.
