When we were children playing in the fields, we always observed the surrounding environment with curiosity, and then we found a variety of insects. Crickets, in particular, are easily caught, and they are often played with as toys by small children. Crickets are small and look fragile. However, there is a special kind of cricket in the world, the armor cricket, which is completely different from the fragile cricket we remember.
Armor Crickets: Large "crickets" with armor
Armoured crickets, scientific name acanthoplush discoidalish, live mainly in Africa, from Botswana to South Africa. The armor cricket is actually a cricket insect, not a cricket. Because it looks like a large cricket in a field, it is called a cricket.
One of the peculiarities of the armor cricket is that it is larger than the average cricket: it is three times the size of the average cricket, and its body length is generally around 5 to 9 centimeters, and someone's little thumb is so long that it is quite scary when flying towards people in the summer.
The armor cricket also has a special feature: it has a hard back plate, which is also the origin of the "armor" in its name. Moreover, its back plate and limbs are blue, green, purple and brownish yellow, and its limbs are relatively thick, looking like a majestic warrior, just as its name suggests. Its "armor" is covered with spikes, and this special construction allows the armored cricket to defend and resist predators in nature.
Of course, there must be gains and losses, and the thick back shell and huge body make it difficult for armor crickets to spread their wings and fly high, and to some extent, they have lost the ability to escape to the sky.
Spike armor is useful: predators can't swallow
The armor of the armor cricket plays a huge role in its prey, most of the time it can make the predator retreat. Even if there are predators who eat armor crickets without fear of pain, the special spikes on the back of armor crickets will scratch the digestive tract of predators.
Severe damage to the digestive tract will cause predators to be unable to eat for a long time and enter a weakened state. In the wild, which is the survival of the fittest, this will be a devastating blow to the armor-eating cricket-eating animals. Therefore, eating armor crickets is definitely an act that is not worth the loss.
In addition, the huge armor cricket has a brutal personality. The armor cricket is a carnivorous insect that cannibalize even its own species when encountering insects smaller than it. In nature, countless small animals avoid armor crickets, for fear of being eaten by each other.
Armor Cricket Escape Magic: Spray Stinky Liquid
Armor crickets have a relatively large body and are rich in protein. In nature, like a walking chunk of food, many animals stronger than it are not afraid of the armor on their bodies. In order to better protect themselves, armor crickets have gradually evolved their own defense system over tens of millions of years. When it faces an unmatched enemy, it will actively spew out a green liquid with a pungent smell that tastes extremely unpleasant and disgusting.
For humans, this liquid has no substantial harm, but if you accidentally contaminate this liquid in the wild, the odor will be difficult to remove, and it will be wrapped in this odor for many hours to come.
This fearsome liquid is actually a kind of hemolymph in the body of armor crickets, which not only tastes uncomfortable, but also spreads widely, and can be smelled tens of meters away from the spray site. Many animals in nature are extremely disgusted by this strange smell, and when they smell it from afar, they avoid it. Therefore, in nature, armor crickets have almost no natural enemies.
The only one who can beat himself is himself and become a "appetizer" of the same kind
No means of self-preservation can be perfect. Although the armor cricket's venom can drive away other creatures, it is not only unable to pose a threat to its own kind, but also brings a fatal blow.
It turns out that after the armor crickets spray liquid, the smell emitted spreads in the air and will be captured by other kinds. Once they catch the smell that doesn't belong to them, the other armored crickets realize that there is an injured armor cricket nearby, which means that they will soon be able to feed on their compatriots. After locating the location of the injured kind, the nearby armor crickets will quickly approach it. If the injured armor cricket had not removed its own unique smell before its kind could find it, it would have become the "appetizer" of the same kind of predator.
Due to the characteristics of armor crickets, it is easy to see similar scenes of armor crickets in nature, which is undoubtedly cruel and bloody. But we can't blame this behavior either, after all, it's the result of tens of millions of years of natural selection by armor crickets.
It is precisely because of this survival of the fittest that the armor cricket has multiplied and developed for tens of millions of years. Due to the risks associated with use, in fact, armor crickets do not use the skill of spraying stinky liquid at will, and only in the case of life-threatening situations, they will be forced to spray liquid to save their lives.
However, there are some special animals that are not afraid of the venom and spikes of armor crickets. At this time, the armor cricket can only consider itself unlucky. At this point, they will spit out the food they have recently eaten, and some predators will lose their desire to prey when they see it, and the armor crickets will be able to take the opportunity to pick up a life.
"Artists are bold": often put themselves in danger
Probably due to the "boldness of the artist", armor crickets always do dangerous things. They especially prefer to climb trees to hunt the young birds of the red-billed Quebec. The red-billed Queria is one of the smallest birds in the world, and they are not much larger than armored crickets. It is precisely because of the bird's characteristic petite size that the armored crickets feel that they can risk the bird's young birds as one of the food sources.
Even though armored crickets are about the same size as this bird, their combat effectiveness is still far weaker than that of this bird. Therefore, in order to be able to successfully catch young birds, armor crickets often take advantage of the absence of large birds to secretly climb trees to attack young birds that have no resistance in the nest. If all goes well, armor crickets can get a "delicacy" to feast on.
However, once the armored crickets are discovered, they will suffer unimaginable retaliation.
The red-billed Queria will launch a fierce attack on the intruder, flapping its wings desperately and making a harsh call, and will also frantically attack outsiders with its mouth. The cricket has a thick carapace to protect itself, so it hardly takes much damage under the attack of the red-billed Queria bird, but the bird's attack will force the armor cricket to fall from the tree, causing further injuries to the body and firing stinky liquid.
Since the stenchy liquid spewed out will soon be smelled by other armor crickets, it will also be in real danger. Therefore, the large armor cricket may dislike its own kind more than other animals.
Resources:
Development and industrialization of insect food[J]. LIU Zhenjiang,XIANG Jingbo. Food Industry Technology. 2006(02)
Analysis of edible value and future prospect of insect protein[J]. WU Zeqi,LIN Jinglan. Food Safety Guide. 2020(12)
Research progress on DNA methylation and its function in insects[A]. XIANG Hui,WANG Wen. Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Yunnan Province[C].2009
Author: December Preliminary Reviewer: Ding Bao'er School Manuscript Editor: Xiao Wan