WASHINGTON: Researchers in the United Kingdom have discovered how cockroaches are able exert a force 50 times stronger than their own body weight in order to chew on the toughest materials.
In a study featured in the journal PLOS ONE, Tom Weihmann and his colleagues at Cambridge’s zoology department found how these insects manipulate the twitch muscle fiber in their mandibles to be able to make hard and repetitive bites on highly durable materials such as wood.
Since insects play a vital part in numerous ecosystems, the researchers believe it is important to understand how much force they are able to use through their mandibles as the first step in studying their ecological and behavioral processes. This in turn can help fellow scientists develop inspired engineering.
“Insects provide a major part of the faunal biomass in many terrestrial ecosystems,” Weihmann said. “Therefore they are an important food source but also crucial as decomposers of plants and animals.”
