If you were asked about animals on land, who had the strongest suction? It is estimated that many friends will answer without thinking that it is an elephant. Indeed, elephants can easily draw large amounts of water from ponds or rivers with their noses, or send them to their mouths to drink, or spray water mist to cool themselves, or spray water to rinse their bodies. So, if someone says there's an animal on land, and it's an insect that sucks 80 times as much as an elephant, can you believe it?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > we get to know this insect</h1>
The insect with this super power is called the cicada. In a previous article, I have introduced this animal, in the grass in the field in the summer morning, sometimes see some grass blades close to the ground, gathering a large number of white foam, the source of these bubbles is the foam cicada.
The cicada is a general term for all insects in the family Hemiptera, and there are about 2,000 species in the world, and there are about 300 species in China. They are widely distributed, and the main distribution areas are low mountains, hills and plains at low altitudes.
From the perspective of body size, all kinds of cicadas are relatively small, generally less than 1 cm, which is why there are so many types and basically do not get everyone's attention. In addition, the body color of the cicada can be changed accordingly according to the changes of the season, the characteristics of the surrounding environment and its own growth stage, forming a protective color with a certain protective effect. In the juvenile stage of the cicada, the grass cicada generally appears light green or yellow, and the pine tree cicada appears brownish gray, which maintains a high color consistency with their main habitat. In adulthood, the body color of all kinds of cicadas becomes darker and darker, and the appearance is basically gray-black or tan.
During the growth period of the larvae, the cicada has the skill of "spitting bubbles", using the dense water bubbles that spit out to wrap up its body, play a certain protective and hidden role, and ensure that the cicada can smoothly pass the molting stage of the larvae.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > the powerful suction of the cicada</h1>
The food of the cicadas mainly relies on the sap of the plant, which is not only the basis for maintaining the energy needed to maintain their physiological activities, but also the material source for forming "water bubbles". Unlike many other insects, which suck plant sap, cicadas feed on the xylem of the plant (most insects feed on the phloem, which is rich in sugar-based fluids).
This brings up the problem that the phloem that other insects consume, in the water circulation in the plant and during the process of sucking, will generate positive pressure in this area, which will push the sap of the plant to flow out very easily and be sucked by the insects. In the process of sucking the sap in the xylem of the plant, the cicada produces a liquid that flows through the "blood vessels" of the plant through negative pressure, and the nutrients in the liquid are small.
In this case, in order to be able to smoothly extract the sap from the xylem of the plant, the cicadas have evolved two unique physiological functions, one is a powerful suction, in the interior of their microwave head, there is a microstructure similar to a high-pressure water pump, the muscles of the head are connected with this "high-pressure water pump", when the cicada's head is rhythmically pulled to the head muscles, it will produce a strong suction force, sucking the sap out of the inside of the plant.
According to the research and analysis of biologists, when the cicada sucks the sap of the plant, the suction force generated by the cicada reaches a staggering 1.6 megapascals, while the suction force of the elephant can only reach 0.02 megapascals, which shows how terrible the suction of the cicada is, which is 80 times that of the elephant.
The other is that you have to suck the juice for a long time. Since the object of the cicada is the xylem of the plant, as mentioned earlier, the nutrients in the sap of the xylem are relatively poor, and the purpose of smoking is to take water on the one hand, and more importantly, to provide nutrition. Therefore, in order to maintain the energy requirements of their physical functions and activities, the cicadas must be sucked for a long time, and the amount of juice that needs to be sucked every day should reach 100 times or even thousands of times the weight of their bodies, that is to say, the cicadas basically do nothing else every day, and "drink water".
This also brings a big problem, that is, after a large amount of "drinking water", the excretion of water is also very much, if there is no special skill, it is very likely to be drowned by their own "excrement". To this end, the cicadas have of course evolved a powerful "skill pack" - the butt catapult, so that when they encounter security threats (such as being harassed by predators, sudden changes in the external environment, including the situation of being drowned immediately), they can quickly catapult their tiny bodies to 5-10 cm away, so as to avoid potential threats.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > is a typical pest</h1>
Because cicadas mainly rely on sucking the sap of plants for food during the growth cycle, especially in their infancy, they are typical parasitic insects for plants, which have a very adverse impact on the normal growth and development of plants. From the perspective of human beings, the cicada is also very harmful to crops, cash crops, forests, flowers, etc., which is easy to cause slow growth, decreased yield, and even withering and death.
Because the "concealment" ability of the protective color of the cicada is more obvious after adulthood, and the ability to move has become more outstanding, coupled with the reason that the body size is small and difficult to find, it is very difficult to control it, and it is difficult to comprehensively and effectively kill. For the cicadas in their infancy, due to their limited ability to move, they often "spit bubbles" around themselves, so it is easier to find, so that corresponding measures are taken to prevent and control.