The Reason Insects Are So Clean

The New York Times’ ScienceTake, a recurring video series chronicling intriguing scientific discoveries, focuses on the reasons why insects, specifically ants, keep themselves meticulously clean.

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and University of Warwick used a combination of electron microscopes, video recordings, and other methods to analyze the cleaning abilities of carpenter ants.

The ants have a joint located in each of their front legs they use to keep their antennae clean. When the creatures bend their legs, a type of clamp is formed. The ants then pull the appendage through the clamp in order to scrape of pollen and dirt particles.

Results of this study were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science [1]. You can watch the video below to see what the team learned from this experiment.