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September 20, 2018 05:19 pm PDT

Nature's greatest con-artists: the parasitic beetles that trick ants into barfing into their mouths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ-k0TBwvL0&feature=youtu.be

Myrmecophiles are parasitic beetles that use chemical cues to fool ants into bringing them into their nests and regurgitating food into their mouths, diverting the colony's bounty of semi-digested ant-chow from the queen and her babies to their own hungry guts. Ant Lab shows us how a Xenodusa beetle can con Camponotus ants into a lifetime of free meals and cuddles. For further reading, check out Behavior and exocrine glands in the myrmecophilous beetle Lomechusoides strumosus (Fabricius, 1775) (formerly called Lomechusa strumosa) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae) in PLOS One. (Thanks, Adrian!)


Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Fe7CcxsBhJE/barf-buffet.html

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