The Morphological Characteristics and Composition of Body Surface of Ant and its Relation to Reducing Soil Adherence

The surface of ants was observed, analyzed and tested by using of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray energy spectrometer technology. On different surface of the ants, the waveform characteristics which were formed by different sizes of grooves were found. These cross sections of waveform surface were waveform curves which had continuous periods and amplitudes. Their sizes varied with different part of the ant. In addition, there was distribution of setae of various sizes on surface of the body. Under higher multiple of electron microscope, the bigger setae had the waveform surface of smaller periods and amplitudes. The results of composition analyzing indicated that the surface of ants contained multi-elements. Among these elements, the most abundant was O which content was over 57%. The following abundant element was C which content was more than 23%. The other elements such as Na, Mg, Zn, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca remained less than 3% respectively. The distribution of morphological characteristics and surface composition may contribute to the property of reducing soil adherence.

Effect of straight and spiral sugar beet extraction paths and lift acceleration on soil tare and relative soil adherence

The soil tare, i.e. the relative amount of soil adhering to sugarbeet after harvest, should be reduced to lower the increasing costs of soil disposal and to prevent negative effects on the environment. The soil loosening effects of nine methods of lifting by extraction and one reference treatment were studied by evaluating the net soil tare (on a clean beet basis) and the relative soil adherence at the stage between lifting and cleaning of beets produced on marine clay loam soils in the Netherlands in 1994 and 1995. In the reference treatment, the beets were dug out carefully. The extraction treatments used were vertical (no spiral), large pitch spiral and small pitch spiral lifting paths at slow, moderate and quick accelerations. The net soil tare was lowest for the quick, small pitch spiral motion: respectively 14% in 1994 and 6% in 1995 for comparable beet properties and normal soil moisture conditions. The relative soil adherence increased significantly with decreasing soil tare. This phenomenon was attributed to the original in situ soil adherence: some soil close to the surface of the beet is reinforced by rootlets or is located in surface niches and adheres strongly to the beet. As soil loading during extraction was non-compressive for all extraction treatments, it is unlikely that the extraction treatments induced the strong soil adherence at low soil tare.