Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

Author:Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson [Sverdrup-Thygeson, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781982112875
Google: wwPXxQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1982112875
Goodreads: 46226357
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2018-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

A Troublesome Fly

Hot dogs on the streets of big cities are one thing. But there are also other types of dead meat that need to be cleared away out in the natural world. Think of all the animals, big and small, that die and are left lying where they dropped. It would be quite unpleasant if they didn’t get recycled pretty quickly.

From the insects’ point of view, carcasses are a handy source of food—they can’t run away, and they can’t defend themselves. But the insects have to be quick, because carcasses are rich in nutrients and therefore much-sought-after food; what’s more, the competition includes a large range of species of varying sizes. Here, insects are literally in the flyweight class, whereas their opponents are heavyweights such as foxes and ravens, vultures and hyenas. One trick is to lay not eggs but ready-hatched larvae in the carcass, as some flesh flies from the Sarcophagidae family do. Another is to eat quickly, grow even more quickly, and generally be flexible when it comes to how big you need to be before pupating.

Another cunning solution is to hide the carcass by burying it. The beautiful red-and-black burying beetles of the Nicrophorus genus are masters of such a vanishing act. They work in pairs, digging out soil from underneath the carcass and placing earth on top, and in this way they can bury a dead mouse in a single day. Beneath the earth, they wrap up the carcass in a ball and lay their eggs on it. And despite the slightly jaw-dropping choice of nursery, they are attentive parents: they chew off tiny scraps of the carcass and regurgitate them into the mouths of their larvae, which are incapable of digesting the food themselves. This is one of the few examples of parental care in the insect world other than among the social insects (see page 44).

Burying beetles also have some good friends that are not insects. When newly hatched sexton beetles leave their childhood home, masses of tiny mites climb onto them and hitch a lift to the next carcass. This species of mite lives only with burying beetles; it cannot fly and is reliant on transport to find its way to a new, fresh carcass. In return for the lift, the mites eat up the eggs and larvae of other competing fly species in the carcass.

The decomposing crew that turns up to break down the carcass belongs to a segment of the insect world that is rarely mentioned or rewarded. There are no fan groups for burying beetles as there are for bumblebees. Yet they are tremendously important animals.

In South Asia, people have learned to their cost what can happen when carrion eaters vanish. It’s true that the animal in question was the vulture, which might be said to be the blowfly’s massively big brother and enjoys a similarly bad reputation among most people. Nonetheless, the point is the same. Around the turn of the millennium, the veterinary medication diclofenac was introduced into India as a treatment for sick cows.

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