Saharan silver ants (Cataglyphis bombycina) have merely runner-up proportions, with legs about 18 percent shorter than those of a related desert ant (C. fortis).

Saharan silver ants don't have an easy life, even by ant standards. In order to avoid predators, they have to look for food during the hottest time of the day — when desert surface temperatures ...

The silver ants' hair, as seen under a scanning electron microscope, with its triangular shape and the ridges on the surface that help reflect light. Willot et al. 2016.

The Saharan silver ant. Credit: Norman Nan Shi and Nanfang Yu. Summer in the Sahara is scorching—sand temperatures can range between 149-158 degrees Fahrenheit. While skittering across the African ...

The silver ants can run their body length in less than a hundredth of a second—the equivalent of a human running 400 miles an hour. A Saharan silver ant walks across the hot sands of Tunisia.

Saharan silver ants (Cataglyphis bombycina) can reach jaw dropping speeds of 855 millimeters per second, making these teeny scavengers the Usain Bolts of the ant kingdom.The species lives in the ...

The ants are covered in microscopic silver hairs that have been found to reflect the sun’s rays while at the same time radiating the insect's own body heat, keeping them below the magic 53.6°C ...

The strikingly beautiful Saharan silver ant is capable of withstanding some of the most extreme temperatures on the planet. New research shows that their silver sheen serves as a heat-repellent ...

The silvery hairs completely reflect the light like mirrors, preventing the ants from absorbing too much heat. That may help to explain how the Saharan silver ants can stay cool when temperatures ...

The Saharan silver ant is third among fastest creatures on Earth, behind Australian tiger beetles and California coastal mites, at 171 body lengths per second and 377 body lengths per second ...