Flying Ants!

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050207/full/050207-10.html

Canopy-dwelling ants in the tropical forests of the Americas have adopted a neat way of averting disaster should they fall from their perch. They glide to safety, steering towards their home trunk rather than plummeting to the ground, where they might never see their nest-mates again.

Worker ants of the species Cephalotes atratus can glide in a chosen direction if dislodged by the wind or larger animals, Stephen Yanoviak of the University of Florida, Vero Beach, and his colleagues have discovered. By making video recordings of plummeting ants, the researchers showed that they fly backwards, abdomen first, using their oar-shaped hind legs to steer towards the tree.

The discovery was an accident, Yanoviak recalls. “About two years ago I was climbing trees to collect mosquitoes when I was attacked by these ants. I brushed 20 or 30 of them off; they fell down and made a nice J-shaped curve back to the tree.”