Fig. 1.

Tripod gait of a fast running and a slowly walking Cataglyphis individual. Six complete strides—three of each body side—captured by high-speed video are shown. Tripods formed by the right front and hind leg (R1, R3) and the left middle leg (L2) are drawn in red; tripods formed by the left front and hind legs (L1, L3) and right middle (R2) leg are drawn in blue. Stride length (s) was determined as the distance between two successive footfalls of the same leg. a Very fast running ant showing the typical tripod gait (s = 19.8 mm; v = 597.4 mm s⁻¹). b A rather slowly walking ant also showing the typical tripod gait, however, with reduced stride length (s = 9.1 mm; v = 95.2 mm s⁻¹). Single video frames of the ant, taken during the first and sixth captured steps, are pasted into the tripod analysis figure