Meeting Abstract
The surface characteristics of forest canopy substrates are highly variable over relatively small temporal and spatial scales. Substrates often differ in roughness, surface wettability, temperature, moisture level, and inclination over minutes and millimeters. This extreme variation favors the evolution of adhesive and attachment mechanisms in ants and other cursorial, arboreal organisms. Ants use soft pads coated with an adhesion-mediating fluid and claws to prevent falling. Our observational and experimental work suggests three patterns. First, ant adhesive performance and running speed varies as a function of substrate type and condition. Second, ant adhesive performance and running speed are not consistently correlated across a range of substrate conditions. Third, adhesive performance and morphology vary with body size and phylogeny. Understanding the functional morphology of ant adhesion is fundamental to understanding ecological relationships in the highly competitive and dynamic canopy environment.
