Come on? Come, do the question, please find out how many insects there are in the picture below.
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answer
C
I guess a lot of people will choose a bee and a beetle, after all, when I see this leaf in the wild, I only see them...
I don't blame it, the third worm is really hard to find!
The beetle was crawling along the edge of the leaf, slowly approaching the small wasps lying on the bird droppings. The little wasp is a fierce character in the insect world, and anyone dares to provoke it, and it feels like a fierce battle will definitely occur. The beetle continued to crawl, almost crawling past the little wasp. The little wasp didn't even move, why was it so instigated today?
Looking closely, the little wasp's posture was a little strange: it was hunched over, and its tentacles were also pulled down. I was wondering, that lump of guano moved...
I suddenly saw the small eyes on the "bird droppings" and was startled - it turned out that the little wasp was dead, and its belly was being tightly bitten by a "spear tumor crab spider".
Guano is refined!
This time, I can see the appearance of the spear tumor crab spider, right? Spear-tumor crab spiders are best at simulating guano (the curved-bellied spider mentioned earlier is also very good at simulating guano). It always curls up 8 legs and lies on the front of the leaf waiting for prey, after all, real bird droppings cannot appear on the back of the leaf.
The body color of the spear-tumor crab spider is white stripes on a green background, which resemble bird droppings. Moreover, the spear tumor crab spider is also a very strict "product manager", and to simulate it, it is necessary to refine the feeling of each lump of guano.
It weaves a thick white silk pad underneath it, and when viewed from above, the white stripes on its body merge with the silk pad. The green part of the body, like a pool of sparse bird droppings splashed down, has a weak point in the center, revealing the base color of the leaves. Around the silk pad, it also sticks some messy silk threads to interfere with the sight of predators or prey, which can also make the bird droppings look bigger.
A few lumps of fresh bird droppings
Graph source network
The face of this "bird droppings" looks like this
👇
The small eyeballs drip
Although I didn't see the moment when the little wasp was caught, based on my previous knowledge of crab spiders, I can also imagine a rough idea:
When the wasp is close enough, the spear tumor crab spider uses the first two pairs of relatively long feet to pounce on the prey, and the poisonous fangs bite the most vulnerable part of the wasp's head and neck, injecting venom and digestive juice; when the prey no longer moves, it is like acrobatic pedaling tank, using the foot and appendage to turn the wasp around, after all, the stomach is fatter and juicier.
Review of past issues
This is an insect, obviously it is guano this feces
Look, the bark is open!
It is nothing to know the dead leaf butterfly, you have the ability to find thin spiders
Who spit on the branches of the trees?
Written, photographed | Tang Zhiyuan
WeChat Editor | Xie Shuang
This article was originally published in The Museum magazine in February 2020