{"id":1078,"date":"2026-05-15T21:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/forty-condoms-used-to-test-air-in-towers-of-cicadas-in-the-amazon-without-breaking-the-clay\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:25:24","slug":"forty-condoms-used-to-test-air-in-towers-of-cicadas-in-the-amazon-without-breaking-the-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/forty-condoms-used-to-test-air-in-towers-of-cicadas-in-the-amazon-without-breaking-the-clay\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty Condoms Used to Test Air in Towers of Cicadas in the Amazon, Without Breaking the Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forty latex condoms helped scientists understand Amazonian clay towers. In the cicada Guyalna chlorogena, a nymph\u2014which is a juvenile stage before adulthood\u2014shapes these tubes before metamorphosis. Their role combines respiration and protection, like a snorkel perched on a tiny fortress.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Why these clay chimneys built by cicada nymphs intrigue biologists so much<\/h2>\n

On the ground, these cylinders resemble small light-brown chimneys. The nymphs build them from clay mixed with their wastes, rising from an underground shaft that can lead to the roots. The tower then becomes a prolongement of the burrow<\/strong>, visible in the damp litter.<\/p>\n

Also read<\/span> In the Sea of Cort\u00e9s, an exceptional marine biodiversity fascinates scientists as much as travelers<\/span><\/section>\n

In Guyalna chlorogena, the structure is built during the late part of the juvenile life. Earlier work often described towers of 20 to 40 cm<\/strong>, i.e., the length of an elongated school ruler. The new study even reports a record of 47 cm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This architecture intrigues because it far exceeds the size of the animal hidden beneath it. The nymph shapes a delicate structure, but tall enough to alter its contact with air and ground. At this scale, a column of mud<\/strong> becomes a biological tool.<\/p>\n

How the height of these clay towers reduces risk when ants patrol the ground<\/h2>\n

The team led by Marina M\u00e9ga, a PhD student in ecology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, tested a simple idea. If the tower protects the nymph, the ants should reach it less often. Baits placed at the summit and on the ground served as comparable traps.<\/p>\n

Also read<\/span> A Cambridge study explains why animals sometimes become children\u2019s best confidants<\/span><\/section>\n

The result shows a clear gap: baits placed on the towers attracted eight times fewer ants<\/strong> than those placed nearby. For a metamorphosing nymph, that protective height<\/strong> acts like the edge of a table for a crumb surrounded by insects.<\/p>\n

Why forty condoms allowed testing air flow without breaking the towers<\/h2>\n

The second hypothesis concerned respiration. Amazonian soils can stay saturated with water, which limits gas exchange, in other words the passage of oxygen and carbon dioxide. A hollow tower could function as an air vent<\/strong> above the mud.<\/p>\n

To obstruct the opening without breaking the clay, the biologists used latex caps. The condoms offered a soft and airtight membrane, fitted to irregular shapes. This makeshift approach allowed testing air circulation<\/strong> without crushing the structures.<\/p>\n

Also read<\/span> Ants weigh less than humans, but their global mass reveals the quiet role they play beneath our feet<\/span><\/section>\n

What this clay architecture reveals about the extended phenotype and the discreet strategies of insects<\/h2>\n

After obstruction, the nymphs did not rebuild all their towers in the same way. The larger structures responded differently than the smaller ones, a sign of a size-dependent reaction. The study mentions a height of the tower<\/strong>-dependent effect.<\/p>\n

This behavior supports the idea of an extended phenotype, that is, a trait built outside the body but useful to the animal. Like a beaver dam altering a stream, the tower transforms the microclimate of the burrow<\/strong> around a hidden nymph.<\/p>\n

Published in Biotropica in 2026, these results do not reduce the tower to a single function. It decreases encounters with ants and participates in gas exchange. In the forest near Manaus, a 47 cm column remains standing in the damp clay.<\/p>\n

Also read<\/span> Behind its cute face, the squirrel hides memory abilities far more complex than imagined<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[621,1382,1383,1381,904,1378,1377,1379,1380],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-air","tag-amazon","tag-breaking","tag-cicadas","tag-clay","tag-condoms","tag-forty","tag-test","tag-towers","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}