Title : Creepy footage shows tiny water bugs eating prey TEN TIMES their size from the inside out
link : Creepy footage shows tiny water bugs eating prey TEN TIMES their size from the inside out
Creepy footage shows tiny water bugs eating prey TEN TIMES their size from the inside out
The vampire water bugs that eat their prey alive: Tiny four-inch killer insects devour fish, frogs, turtles and even snakes by sucking them to death from the inside out
- There are 150 giant water bug species found across the world's freshwaters
- The insects have an excruciating bite and are colloquially known as toe-biters
- They dissolve their prey from the inside before sucking out their gooey innards
- Some females eat other bugs' eggs to ensure males look after their offspring
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, footage taken by a Japanese scientist has revealed that giant water bugs can eat prey as large as ten times their own size.
The bugs clamp their kill in their strong front legs, before injecting the victim with digestive juices that break them down from the inside out.
The giant water bug can then suck out their prey's dissolving insides through its straw-like mouth.
In 2011, the researcher had reported observing one of the monstrous bugs even eating a small turtle.
Entomologist Shin-ya Ohba of Japan's Japan's Nagasaki University is behind the new study, which contains a comprehensive review of all we know about giant water bugs and their lifestyles.
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Giant water bugs can eat prey as large as ten times their own size. The bugs clamp their prey in their strong front legs (pictured), before injecting the victim with digestive juices that breaks them down from the inside out. The giant water bug can then suck out their prey's dissolving insides through its straw-like mouth. The male pictured is carrying young on its back.
Prof. Ohba has had an almost life-long fascination with the insects, having been captivated since first laying eyes on one in a pet store at the age of seven.
'Japanese entomologists like giant water bugs because they have cool morphology,' Prof. Ohba told the National Geographic, noting that their front legs remind him of a muscular arm being flexed.
There are around 150 species within the giant water bug family, members of which can be found in almost all corners of the globe.
The largest of the bugs are found in South America, where two species of the insect are known to reach over four inches (10 centimetres) in length.
In Prof. Ohba's native Japan, wild giant water bugs are top predators that hunt in rice fields and wetlands.
Using their naturally camouflage, the bugs lurk in wait on plants, bobbing upside-down in the water and breathing through a snorkel-like tube that comes out of their rears.
'They just take up a position holding onto a plant in the water, and anything that moves in front of them, they’ll grab it and try to eat it,' biologist and water bug expert Charles Swart of Trinity College, Connecticut (who was not involved in the study) explained to the National Geographic.
The bugs are not picky eaters, and will consume amphibians, other insects, fish and snakes - and have been known to bite humans.
It it this that has earned them their nickname: 'toe-biters'.
As soon as prey falls within their reach, the terrible bugs grab their victim tight between their powerful front legs before piercing them with their dagger-like proboscis.
The bugs then use this vicious mouth-part, to inject a cocktail of digestive saliva that may contain anaesthetic chemicals.
It is not clear whether the bugs are truly venomous, but their bite is reportedly excruciating for those having the misfortune to have experienced it.
While humans can survive a giant water bug attack, other animals are not so lucky.
The saliva the insects inject breaks down their victims from the inside out, after which the bugs suck up their prey's dissolving tissues.
With larger animals, this process can take hours, during much of which the poor victim may remain alive.
Unusually for insects, it is the male of the giant water bug family that bears most of the responsibility for caring for the young, protecting them and sometimes carrying them around on their backs.
In one Japanese species, female bugs kill the eggs of their competitors.
'Although the brooding males attack the infanticidal females, they may not be able to overcome them because females are larger than males in this species,' Ohba writes in his paper.
'By destroying the eggs of her competitor, a female can obtain the mating partner of the competitor and make certain that the male takes care of her eggs.'
The bugs aren't all bad, however - as top predators, they are an essential part of their ecosystem.
For this reason, it is vital that they are protected from water pollution and invasive predators like bullfrogs and crayfish.
'We can conserve whole ecosystems through the conservation of giant water bugs,' Ohba concludes.
The full findings of the research are published in the journal Entomological Science.
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