Introduction: The "three-eyed monster" in the rice fields looks like a fish and a shrimp. When I was a child, I often fished it out to feed the ducks. Is it a pest?
is about to usher in " to compete with " in the south. This was the farm work that rural children were most afraid of in the past.
Because the weather during this period is very hot, even the water in the rice fields is scalding, but rural children also have to go to the fields to cut rice, move rice ears, pull out seedlings, and transplant rice seedlings. It's hot and hard, and even some adults can't stand it.
Moreover, there are many bugs in the rice fields. For example, green bed bugs are often found on the rice fields. If they fly over and land on you, your clothes will be smelly for a long time. And in the water there are leeches . Of course, there is also a strange creature that looks like a fish and a crayfish. In the past, rural children often fished it out to feed chickens and ducks, or kept it as pets. Do you still remember?
This kind of bug is commonly known as three-eyed dinosaur shrimp . Do you still have it in your hometown? So is it a pest or a beneficial insect? let's figure it out together.
The three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is a "monster" that looks like a fish and a shrimp.
It is estimated that many rural children do not recognize this monster now, because it can no longer be seen in many rice fields. I remember that when the author was a child, that is, 30 years ago, there were so many bugs like this in rice fields and ponds, and we would often catch them especially when pulling out seedlings.
In my hometown, this insect is also called tortoise cover , or rollover. In some places, it is also called horseshoe tube , dung beetle cub, money counting lock, etc. Of course, it also has other A more domineering name - three-eyed dinosaur shrimp.
The scientific name of the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is Jiapeng Limulus. It is a very ancient creature, even earlier than the dinosaurs. It first appeared in the Paleozoic Era Carboniferous Era 300 million years ago. It is a type of small crustacean belonging to the order Branchiopoda, subclass Branchiopoda, and order Dorsalis. It is also the only known horseshoe crab found in China.
The three-eyed dinosaur shrimp looks very interesting. In its larval stage, it has no tail and its body is dark red. It looks very much like river mussel. And when they grow up, their bodies will look like fish, especially turtles, and crayfish.
Because its body has a shell like a turtle, and the body at the back is as slender as a crayfish's tail, especially when it swims in the water, it really looks like a fish and a crayfish.
This kind of insect used to be more common in rice fields, stinky ditches, or ponds. Many rural children often fished it out and played with it as toys in the summer. Children at that time were really brave, and there were a lot of them. Animals can be used as toys. There are so many of these bugs in some rice fields that naughty children will fish them out in dung baskets and feed them to ducks.
A creature older than dinosaurs, but its life span is only three months.
Archaeological discoveries have found that the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is a creature older than dinosaurs. It was very prosperous in the Triassic 200 million years ago. At that time, most dinosaurs hadn't even existed yet. The dinosaurs are now extinct, but the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is still distributed in small numbers in some areas.
Although it is rarely seen in rural rice fields today, there are still many such insects in some remote mountainous villages. The reason why the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp has been able to escape the three mass extinctions of the Earth century is because it has extremely strong vitality.
The three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is a typical underwater animal. It is basically found wherever there is water, including rivers, lakes, rice fields, and even smelly ditches. Moreover, it has a wide range of sources of death. It can not only eat organic debris at the bottom of the water, but also prey on some small creatures and their larvae in the water, such as water earthworms , mosquitoes, ants , etc., which are their prey.
However, the lifespan of the three-eyed dinosaur was not long. Its entire life span from hatching to death was about 90 days, which is three months.Therefore, it is a very short-lived insect, but it has a special ability, that is, the eggs it lays have a "diapause period."
After they lay eggs, if the external environment is not suitable for their growth, such as the environment dries up, the eggs will stop hatching, but they will not die.
Even when kept dry, they can survive for a long time, up to 25 years. Only when there is precipitation later, or if the egg environment is filled with water, can they hatch naturally. This is probably one of the reasons why it has been able to survive on the earth for such a long time!
Is the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp a pest? Nowadays, it has become a popular pet.
To determine whether an animal is a pest, it mainly depends on whether it is harmful to crops or humans, so this is relative. The food source of the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp is mainly corrosive substances in the water body. Sometimes it will also eat small insects in the water body, or their larvae. Mosquito larvae are one of the prey of the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp.
Moreover, this kind of bug is not harmful to farmland or human body. On the contrary, it can also help clean up weeds and some pests in the rice fields, which will make the rice fields grow better, so it is not only not a pest, It is also an insect beneficial to agriculture.
In the past, the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp was a relatively common insect in vast rural areas, and many children would catch it as a toy. Now it has really become a popular pet, and some people will deliberately breed it in water tanks. Especially in Japan and other regions, there is a rise in breeding three-eyed dinosaur shrimp, and the price of one is not cheap.
Although the three-eyed dinosaur shrimp has strong vitality, due to the extensive use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc., this animal is rarely seen in many rice fields. There are only a few in some inaccessible remote areas. distributed. It has to be said that these pesticides and chemical fertilizers are really harmful.
Have you ever seen this "three-eyed monster" in the rice fields? Are there any more in your hometown? Everyone is welcome to leave a message for discussion. As a matter of fact, the author often saw it when I was a child and caught it to play with, but now I haven’t seen it for many years. Otherwise, you can catch a few and raise them in a fish tank.
