You might recall you have tough feeding habit , but at least you ’re not eating someone else ’s puke . It turn out that one species of beetle does exactly this , and get the majority of its food bymaking ant vomitdirectly into its mouth .
The beetle ( Amphotis marginata ) actually overwork a behavior that is vulgar to many species of ants , in which the insects will run other ants from their settlement in the rather sorcerous mode of vomit up into each other ’s mouth , a mental process that is technically known as " trophallaxis " .
“ It ’s that behavior that this parasitic beetle has sort of capitalise on,”explainedChristina Kwapich , who co - author the study published inPLOS ONE . “ It ’s broken the computer code of communication between the ants in rules of order to slip that sugary liquid that ’s stand for for other nestmates . ”
The researchers discovered that the beetles will sit down along the edges of scrounge trails made by the ants , and then romance the proletarian stuffed with honeydew melon as they hap by .
“ We refer to them as highwaymen mallet , because they ’re pluck the traffic lines of the pismire , ” joked Kwapich . But the beetles are so good at this chunder deception that they are actually able-bodied to get the inauspicious ants to cast more than they would when eat a fellow nestmate .
Arizona State University
The beetle get by to get the emmet to barf usingsome fairly acute trickery . First of all , the beetle knock and caress the emmet with their antennae , whilst secreting an attractive chemical substance from their pass . This beguiles the ants into staring into their grimace and licking their heads . The beetles stimulate them to open their mouthparts and continue their labium ( humble lip ) , arrive the unfortunate ants to retch directly into their mouths . Delicious .
In effect , the beetle seduces the emmet before sticking its fingers down its throat .
Using radioactive honeydew , the researchers were able to track the puking of food between the ants and the beetles . By doing this , they see out that the hoodwinked ants be sick 1.8 multiplication more fluid to the mallet than they do to their own variety . The researchers were also able to observe that the beetles never feed food back to the ants , make it a suit of pure parasitism .
The rather unusual life-style does not , however , come without risk . If the beetles make a misapprehension , and the ants realize that they are not in fact other emmet want a meal but beetles slurping on their cast , the ants will sky the beetle over and literally tear them limb from limb .
So , if the option is being torn apart or eat nauseant for the sleep of your life , I think the solvent is pretty unclouded .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
