has such a small insect, which many people have seen , and they often put it in their hands and played with it in their childhood. Because it has a wide distribution range, the nicknames in different places are different. is sometimes called Diguniu , and sometimes called Sha Tarba .
A little insect that pets played with in childhood
Speaking of this, I believe everyone knows what this kind of creature is. It is " Ant Lion ".
People are full of curiosity about special insects such as ant lions, such as wanting to know how it hunts and how it creates "traps". The most curious thing is why , an animal that has no anus and only eats no pulling a year, is not suffocating to death by shit? ? Next, let’s take a look together!
Ant lion is called "liu" but is it a worm?
First, let’s briefly introduce the animal ant lion . After all, many people have never seen it. Although this guy has the word "liu" in his name, it has nothing to do with lions, because it belongs to the Arthropod, Insects , Antaceae, and feeds on other insects.
Generally speaking, people like to call it an ant lion in childhood, and only after it becomes an adult is called an ant lion. Ant lions generally like to live under the dry surface , widely distributed in North America, Europe and Asia. In my country, they mainly live in Xinjiang, Gansu, Hebei, Shaanxi and other provinces. They are insects that many people often encounter in childhood.
It is worth mentioning that ant lion is also an insect of , which is particularly ancient , because according to research, the oldest fossil of the hornaceae family in was found in the bottom layer of the Late Jurassic, and its morphology and vein characteristics are very similar to those of today's hornaceae.
However, people's detailed research and summary of ant lions only appeared in 1915. Later, Japanese doctors of medicine specifically described the living habits and morphological classification of ant lions in their bibliography, and formally brought ant lions into everyone's vision.
Schematic diagram of the body structure of ant lion
The more in-depth research is, the more fascinated scholars will be. To this end, Japanese scholar Toshiaki Matsuraya calls ants a "magic insect and a mysterious ecological representative."
According to research, ants a completely metamorphic insect, and will go through four stages: egg, larvae, pupa and adult in one's life. What we are talking about today is larval stage .
Schematic diagram of the growth process of ant flies
During this period, its body shape was spindle-shaped, with a relatively small head and chest . A pair of protruding jaw tubes on the top of the head are the mouthpieces that attacked the prey. Of course, it is important to note that no matter which stage of ant lion, is a carnivorous organism , and they are not "vegetarians"!
It is undeniable that it is a good thing to be able to eat. , but if "only eat but not pull" all year round, it seems that it is impossible to maintain normal metabolism . So people are curious about this and finally found out that this guy didn't want to defecate, but that he didn't have the organs to defecate at all. So, won’t the ant lion be suffocated to death by its own excrement?
"constipation but not affected" ant lion
In our opinion, "eating, drinking, defecation and urging" can be regarded as the basic needs of all living things in nature. , and ant lions only need to eat, drink, and do not need to excrete , which is really surprising.
When I learned that it had no anus and could not defecate, people felt that its round abdomen must have something "indescribable" , and even directly placed it and dung beetle on the same list of insects that "do not love clean" .
The problem is that this guy doesn't seem to be "constipated". Whether it is in people's petri dish or in the wild, it should eat and drink , and it does not show signs of being suffocated to death, which makes people confused. To this end, experts also conducted special research.
After long-term observation and research, people discovered that ant lions do not need to defecate, because is because it pays special attention to when eating during this period. In the past, people always believed that carnivorous insects, ant lions, would chew them with their mouthparts once they caught their prey and then slowly dismantle them into their abdomen.
But in fact, ant lions eat very elegantly. can be said to be not considered eating, but rely entirely on to "suck" .
schematic diagram of the eating method of ant lion
After the ant lion catches the prey, will lift the prey with the mouthpiece, and then constantly adjust the position where the mouthpiece penetrates . Take ant as an example. It usually pierces the mouthpart directly into the ant's abdomen, and then secretes digestive enzyme , which contains a certain toxin. These digestive enzymes will dissolve in the prey's body for sucking.
Data shows that after biologists Helk and others used to cut roots tomatoes to conduct experiments, they believed that the venom injected into prey by an ant lion was a protein digestive enzyme.
angel lion's suction mouthpiece diagram
In this case, angel lion actually eats digested organic juice , and the content of food residues is very small. Without food residue, you naturally don’t need to defecate.
Of course, the "dilution function" of its digestive fluid is not so powerful, so there will still be some residues, which will accumulate at the end of the intestine of the ant lion. will be discharged from after it enters the adult stage.
In addition, it should be noted that although ant lions are very fierce when preying, has a way of preying similar to "waiting for rabbits", and traps must be arranged in advance, so the probability of catching food is not high.
Schematic diagram of the predation method of ant lion
In this case, let alone being so full that you want to defecate, is hungry most of the time. Experiments show that ant lion has a strong ability to withstand hunger and can eat nothing for nearly 100 days.
Vanzyl pointed out that the resting metabolic rate of 3-instar larvae of ant flies is only 5.4%-8.9% of that of a warming animal, and 17.2%-23.7% of that of a spider; and calculated that the minimum energy consumption for maintaining its own survival was 1.56 and 3.36J/d.
"strong" on the outside, but also "strong" on the inside!
It is worth mentioning that many biologists believe that ant lion actually has an anus, , but when this organ does not defecate, it is difficult to call it "anus" . So, what is the use of an ant lion's anus?
It turns out that after the ant lion cultivated in a petri dish died, discovered that it created an "cocoon" in the sand. This cocoon looked made of white filaments and was covered with sand and soil particles. At this time, the biologist was very confused because he had not discovered that it had the skill of "spitting silk" after observing this guy for so long.
Ant lion cocoon shell (lower right corner) schematic diagram
After research, it was discovered that ant lion does not "spin silk" but it can "draw silk". It turns out that after its anus does not assume the function of excretion, it becomes an textile that helps it spin silk and cocoon. Don’t think that this transformation is useless. You should know that if an ant lion wants to eventually become an adult, it must enter the cocoon you have created and then try to escape.
Many people may not have imagined that the dirt-shaped ground bull can actually become another way. According to the data, the ant lion that enters the cocoon in can turn into an adult after half a month, which is the ant lion we mentioned above.
became an adult, which is completely different from before. not only has a slender body, but also has transparent wings , which looks a bit similar to a dragonfly. When it shakes its wings, it can fly smoothly. I can only say that the ant lion that had endured for a long time was waiting for the moment when it flew into the blue sky.
Of course, in order to keep your body light, will completely discharge the food residues that are useless in the body during the larval period from . Speaking of this, I believe everyone will sigh at the magic of nature. It turns out that ant lions who do not defecate for a year will not be suffocated to death.
Finally, let’s talk about how the ant lion, an elegant hunter who cleverly sets traps, hunts in the sand.
Elegant hunter "Ant Lion"
Anyone who has caught ant lions should know that its nest is actually easy to find. usually has an obvious funnel-shaped pit on the sand , which is the home of the ant lion. It will hide itself under the sand, and pokes out a small hole to breathe.
Many passing ants or small insects will not pay attention to this small sand pit when they are on the way, but if their feet slide into it, they will be unable to escape and die. Because the ant lion will immediately extend its mouthpart to control when it detects the prey. Although the prey will struggle hard at this time, it is difficult for those who roll and crawl out of this small trap.
Therefore, it is okay if the ant lion's attack is not accurate, and the prey that falls into the trap is basically unable to escape . Even if sometimes a few talented people can struggle to stand firm and try to climb out, the ant lion will use its flat head to shovel sand to attack it. Under the burial attack, the prey will still be caught by it.
was bitten by an ant lion. The ant that could not be broken free was not difficult to see that the ant lion basically did not show up during the whole process, and the "eating" after completing the hunting was not too slow. It even threw the dried animal shell out of the sand pit, which was indeed very "elegant"!
