What did creatures from more than 200 million years ago look like? The discovery of Mr. Song, a citizen of Donghai County in Lianyungang, may be able to solve the answer. He is a photography enthusiast and uses his camera to walk around photographing insects on weekdays.
Recently, when passing through the pond of the community, he accidentally found some strange bugs in the water, which attracted his interest, so he hurriedly photographed these bugs.
In appearance, these bugs look more similar to shrimp and resemble tadpoles. Mr. Song went home and consulted the relevant information, and found that these bugs were very similar to the creature "horseshoe" that had been living on the earth 200 million years ago, and later confirmed by experts that this was the hou (hou) worm.
Commonly known as the "three-eyed dinosaur shrimp", only 1 species has been found in China
The scorpion is a freshwater crustacean, according to the existing records, there are a total of 9 species of horseshoe crabs in the world, three species found in Japan, and only one species found in the mainland.
The body of the crab is dark gray-green , with a dorsal shell and oval shell , a soft, flexible and slender abdomen , and a forked tail.
The body of the dorsal shell is divided into about 40 segments, with a body length of about 10 cm, and some leaf-like subsidiary limbs, which can reach more than 70 pairs.
Horseshoe crabs are commonly known as "three-eyed dinosaur shrimp", why does a bug have such a domineering name? Mainly because it has not gone through the age of dinosaurs and has not become extinct, and because there are black compound eyes on both sides of the body, and there is a white light-sensitive eye in the middle, it is named "three-eyed dinosaur shrimp".
However, unlike this domineering name, its name in mainland folk is relatively unremarkable. For example, in Langfang, Hebei Province, people call it "flower shoes"; In Xinghe County, Inner Mongolia, people call it horseshoe or rollover.
Horseshoe crabs are typical underwater habitats and are often found in natural ponds formed on rainy days. They have a strong vitality and have existed on Earth more than 200 million years ago.
In the 1990s, it was common in many parts of the mainland, and I believe many people still have impressions. When I was a child, I liked to catch this animal to feed the chickens and also catch it to play, especially in some water after the rain, there are many of them, they do not bite, and they are not poisonous and harmless.
Adults like to call it a "blood dustpan" because its back shell resembles a dustpan in the countryside, and a red liquid will bubble up when pressed with your hand.
Adults can live for more than 90 days, and eggs can still live after 25 years of dormancy
The lifespan of the horseshoe crab is not very long, about 90 days, but the eggs they lay are incredibly strong. The eggs of the scorpion are extremely vigorous and are not afraid of drought, and if the environment becomes dry due to lack of water, these larval eggs will be stimulated to enter a special phenomenon of the biological world, known as the "diapause period".
Simply put, it is not developing and entering the dormant stage. This is somewhat similar to tardigrades, which also enter a dehydrated dormant state when the environment becomes extremely harsh.
Until the next rainy season, ponds are formed again in the low-lying areas, and the larval eggs that receive the signal will stop dormant and enter the development again until the larvae break out of their shells.
According to studies, the diapause period of a crab egg can reach more than 25 years, which means a dormant egg from 25 years ago, and when you put it back into the water, it can hatch, which is quite strong.
The crab is capable of parthenogenesis, which means that it can lay two kinds of eggs, one is summer eggs, one is winter eggs, parthenogenesis lays summer eggs, and amphoteric reproduction lays winter eggs.
Summer eggs usually hatch into adults that year, which ensures the population of crabs. Those with strong tolerance to the environment are generally winter eggs.
In order to grow into adults, the larvae of the horseshoe need to undergo multiple dehulling, presumably once a day, and will evolve into adults within 30 days.
The size of the adult worm is in the range of 2-10 cm, as to how big can it grow? Depending on the environment they are in, if given enough sunlight and food, their size will be significantly larger.
Japanese farmers have used it instead of pesticides, and some have kept it as pets
I don't know if you have found such a phenomenon, that is, when a place has been in the water for a long time, some fish will naturally be born, so where do these fish come from? If there is no artificial release and communication with external rivers, then a large part of the reason is that water birds have brought them.
Waterfowl tend to have moist feathers that hold and remain active, and the eggs can spread to other areas of water with the birds.
Because the eggs of the horseshoe have a strong setting of "diapause", they can also spread with the water birds to farther away, which is one of the reasons why the crabs can be widely distributed.
Horseshoe crabs inhabit the bottom of the water, feeding on the detritus of some organisms or small organisms in the water, as early as the early 20s, Japan found that there is a function of weeding, so later some farmers took them as pesticide substitutes for rice planting, so that the horseshoe crabs removed the weeds in the field, so that the rice could grow better.
In addition, in Japan, Taiwan and other places, there are also people who raise horseshoe crabs as pets, which is no different from our goldfish, tadpoles, etc.
However, the horseshoe crab has certain requirements for water quality and water temperature, so when feeding, try to use pure water to simulate the newly accumulated rainwater environment, and the water temperature is controlled at about 20-25 degrees.
Horseshoe crabs are distributed in the continents of North China, Northeast China, East China, south China, and with the improvement of the growth environment, the species will become more and more extensive.
Although many bugs are hated objects, but the horseshoe crab does not bite, is not poisonous and harmless, should be loved by everyone, right?