Ants On High Gravity Planets

[Photon Guy]

Ants are extremely strong for their size. Apparently ants can lift over 1000 times their body weight. As such, Im wondering how ants would be on planets with really high gravity, much higher gravity on earth. They would probably do just fine I would think. 

[Phi for All]

I would imagine there's a point where the stability of having so many legs is overshadowed by the inefficiency of having to move them all, especially on a bigger world with more influence from gravity.

[swansont]

17 hours ago, Photon Guy said:

Ants are extremely strong for their size. Apparently ants can lift over 1000 times their body weight. As such, Im wondering how ants would be on planets with really high gravity, much higher gravity on earth. They would probably do just fine I would think. 

Why do you think that? 
 

Ants are evolved for a 1g environment. Species tend not to be over-engineered to a great extent; it’s a waste of resources for that to happen. Ants being able to lift 1000x their body weight happens because it’s advantageous to do so. But they don’t lift 10,000x their body weight, which is what would be necessary in a 10g environment. Plus all the other environmental difference one would have, for which they have not evolved to deal with.

[Janus]

On 3/12/2024 at 1:27 PM, Photon Guy said:

Ants are extremely strong for their size. Apparently ants can lift over 1000 times their body weight. As such, Im wondering how ants would be on planets with really high gravity, much higher gravity on earth. They would probably do just fine I would think. 

Ants can do this because of something called the square-cube law.   When you increase the size of something by a given factor you increase its surface area and the area of its cross-section by that factor squared, and it volume (thus its mass) by that factor cubed. The strength of limbs are dependent on the area of their cross-section.  Which, as the size increases increases at a slower rate than the mass/weight of the animal.

Increase an ant to the size of a man, and it wouldn't even be able to support its own weight. Conversely, shrink a man down to the size of an ant, and they'd put a ant to shame in terms of strength.

So in terms of higher gravity, this just means that smaller animals would generally fare better.

[Genady]

Similar effect allows bacteria to withstand much higher osmotic pressures than eukaryotic cells. In this case, it is the line-square rather than the square-cube law. When you decrease the size by a factor, the ability of a membrane to withstand tear decreases by that factor while the tearing force decreases by the factor squared. Thus, a bacterium that is 100 times smaller than a regular cell can withstand 100 times higher osmotic pressure.

Edited March 14 by Genady