There is a famous saying in " Zhuangzi·Qiu Shui" - "A frog in a well cannot talk to the sea, because he is limited in emptiness; a summer insect cannot talk to the ice, because he is devoted to the time."
This does not contain any dirty words. The shocking quatrains have been passed down as classics from generation to generation, and have evolved into two idioms: frog in the well and summer insect yubing.
Summer Chongyu Ice
In our common sense, bugs cannot live in ice and snow. Yes, the cause of death is simple physics - water expands when it freezes.
When the body temperature drops below zero, most bugs will face a serious problem: the water in the cells freezes, the ice crystals expand and burst the cells. The cells die, and the bugs die.
Creatures at the North and South Poles
However, there are always things that defy common sense.
The North and South Poles are the coldest places on earth. Life there is tough and the temperatures make it difficult for animals to survive. However, many insects, including mosquitoes, thrive in frozen areas.
Either avoid being frozen to ice, or be able to tolerate freezing
How do they prevent themselves from freezing to death?
In the world of insects, a variety of successful strategies have been developed to avoid dying from the cold. All of these strategies basically fall into one of two categories: Either you can avoid being frozen, or you can tolerate being frozen.
Tips for Suicide
Many insects go through a resting phase during the coldest parts of winter, a period of dormancy and pause in development called diapause. This usually happens when the insects are eggs or larvae, which better protects them from cold environments.
The Last Dance
In order to cope with the cold, some insects have evolved a self-rescue method that is like a "suicide trick"-dehydrating themselves. For example, the Antarctic midge (Belgica Antarctica), also known as the Antarctic chironomid, has learned to actively drain almost all the water from its vital organs.
Most insects will die if they lose 20% of the water in their bodies, but Antarctic midges can survive if they lose 70% of their water. By dehydrating themselves, Antarctic midges can endure freezing temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius. It doesn't matter if the remaining water in the body freezes. It doesn't matter if the ice crystals are formed in the body far away from the vital organs.
Compare the heat tolerance limit of the chironomid (Polypedilum vanderplanki). Living in Africa, their body moisture can be as low as 4%. When the ambient humidity is zero, after being dehydrated and kept quiet for 17 years, chironomid larvae can still revive after adding water.
Antifreeze
Many insects produce compounds, such as natural ethanol and glycerin, that can prevent freezing.
These chemicals prevent the formation of ice crystals, allowing the body fluids of insects living in cold areas to drop to temperatures well below zero without freezing.
The orange lantern moth (Pyrrharctia Isabella) lives in the Arctic region. Its caterpillar can survive the severe cold of minus 20 degrees, and the body fluid temperature will not freeze within -30°C.
Upis ceramboides
Another more extreme freeze-resistant bug is a beetle (Upis ceramboides) that lives in . Their antifreeze body fluid can withstand minus 75 degrees.
Recently, scientists discovered a new species of Arctic bumblebee and described it for the first time in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. This bumblebee is named Bombus interacti. They are said to be the least afraid of cold among bees, and their specific anti-freezing mechanism needs further study.
Bombus interacti
written at the end
Xia Chongyu Bing, it is very meaningful to study how life survives in the cold polar winter, not for the unreachable glacial doomsday, or the haphazard plan of rich people to freeze and preserve themselves until the future.
For the general public, the significance of studying animal freezing techniques lies in organ transplantation technology . Currently, transplanted organs cannot be frozen and can only be "online" for a few hours.
After we master the technology of freezing animal organs, the freezer will be filled with hearts, livers, spleens, lungs and kidneys. If something is broken, just replace it.
Speaking of it, in fact, each of us is a frog in the well, and we all have the limitations of our own vision. Therefore, try to open your mind as much as possible and read, study, and imagine rigorously.
The author thanks you for your attention(¬_¬)
