Who knew some caterpillars can squeak?! Does anybody have an explanation?
Spiracles, AKA the breathing holes that most insects have on their sides. Some insects have slightly modified spiracles, which, when air is forced through them, produce sound. Hissing cockroaches are the most famous example, but it’s also a tactic found in some beetles and, as seen here, caterpillars.
It’s meant to startle a predator into dropping it, and is not actually an indicator of distress so much as a reaction to something that might be a predator. A more accurate translation of the squeaks would probably be “BUGGER OFF YOU FUCK”.
And let me tell you, it might not seem very startling here, but picking up a caterpillar and having it scream at you will definitely make you drop it. Source for that: me picking up a hornworm and learning that they can yell.
(okay so this explanation is gonna have a lot of pics so im gonna put it under a cut even though i super dont want to because this is so cool like im gonna die) EDIT: i’ve been told that the read more sucks so im removing it
yes, those are fangs. they don’t function like actual fangs- keep in mind that nepenthes pitchers are inert, and don’t close or move like sundews or venus fly traps do. in this case, the fangs profusely secrete nectar (other functional uses of them are debated, but include warding off monkeys that might try to drink from them and creating loose footing for insects):
this is pretty much the main appeal of bicals to growers and hobbyists, but scientifically, they’re an amazing case of mutualism! the pictures we’ve seen so far are what we call the lower pitchers of the plant. nepenthes have upper and lower pitchers that grow on those respective portions of the vine; these pitchers sometimes have physiological differences. what we’re gonna focus on here is the upper pitchers, which look like this:
its a built-in house for a very specific species of carpenter ants, Camponotus schmitzi, which live almost exclusively in wild bicals and are heavily dependent on them in their native habitat of Borneo.
both of these species are so specifically evolved to each other that its ridiculous. the ants:
-get to eat all the nectar they want because they’re specially evolved to be able to crawl all over it
-get to eat flies, mites, fungus, other ants, other insects, and anything else that might fall into the pitcher, or just attack them so they can’t escape.
-can walk on and be submerged in the fluid inside the pitcher without getting eaten alive by acid because they’re evolved to
-get a free house with every upper pitcher the plant makes. the plant doesnt have special lower pitchers for them because they sometimes get flooded when it rains (closer to the ground) and the plant doesnt want to hurt its ant friends
-basically sit right under the lip of the pitcher and wait to ambush things that fall in
-the ants have this behavior where they drag big prey they want up from the fluid up the pitcher to eat it under the pitcher lip. this is just how they eat. what do u expect like they’re not gonna eat right in the pitcher fluid like animals even if dragging food up two inches can take them up to twelve hours at a time depending on the size like were u raised in a barn?????????
the plant:
-gets free protection from mites and fungus and stuff
-doesnt need many digestive fluids of its own because the ants just eat whatever falls in and then poop it into the pitcher, which is way easier to digest
-gets its pitchers kept clean and the fluid free from clutter that might cause rot
-sometimes gets to eat dead ants that happen to fall into the pitcher
-research also tells us that the ants tend to prefer attacking large prey and stuff that tries harder to escape, increasing the amount the plant gets to eat.
in general, bicals can survive without the ants and do fine in captivity, but the ants cannot survive without the plants- they nest in their upper pitchers exclusively and get a ton, if not all, of their food from them. in general, this relationship is suuuuuper complex and is actually still being studied!
some more sweet plant and ant friend pics from this research paper on their friendship:
here’s a video showing the ants going about some of their daily business!
theres a bunch of different insects and all of them are valid
mosquito
wasp
I know this is supposed to be a funny shitpost and so are the tons of wasp, mosquito and cockroach comments on it, but….ALL of those are important to the ecosystem.
Despite sensationalist news stories claiming it was “scientifically determined” to not be the case (utter bullshit), mosquitoes are valuable both as a part of the nutrient cycle and as pollinators.
Cockroaches are sanitary scavengers that serve essential cycling roles in almost every terrestrial ecosystem from deserts to rainforests.
Wasps meanwhile are THE most essential regulators of other insect populations. They’re so effective at it that plants, especially most trees, use chemical signals specifically to communicate with wasps when they need themselves rid of caterpillars, aphids or other herbivores.
Some smart aleck might say “then we get rid of those and the wasps together, problem solved” but even plant-eating insects are necessary. Plants need regulating too. They need “pruning” even in the wild, and there are even many plants who will depend on pollination from the same moth or fly whose larvae devour its leaves. Every single thing is a balance.
It’s completely silly anyway to treat certain animals as bad, evil or unnecessary just because they’re harmful to humans. We’re harmful to pretty much everything. We can’t just dismiss every part of nature that isn’t coddling us.
I will never not reblog dainty deer-stepping beetle
wanna know the best thing about these trilobite beetles?
these are all ladies.
males look like every other beetle out there, but are the same species. it was a huge mystery for the longest time what the hell a male even looked like, or if there even were males, until they issued a money reward and someone brought in a mating pair. and they couldn’t believe that they were even of the same species because of how different they look.
we have an irl species of giant monstrous ladies and tiny dainty plain males
I made a compilation of the all the creepy, crawlies of the world. From top to bottom, we have a melting scorpion, a predatory flatworm that is attacking an adorable snail, a katydid feasting on a cricket, a feasting comb jelly, a godforsaken sling-jaw wrasse, a snake eating bird eggs and an ogre-faced spider.
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 