Insects just need to be scared to die

Canadian researchers say that the presence of a predator can also be stressful enough to kill prey, even if predators don't really catch and eat prey, according to the news agency. UPI.

The expert team at the University of Toronto confirmed their findings could be applied to all organisms facing a certain level of stress.

'The way prey reacts to the fear of being eaten is an important topic in ecology, and we know a lot about how these reactions affect interactions between prey and hunting animals. How bait , 'evolutionary biologist Locke Rowe said.

In an experiment, newborn dragonfly larvae were raised in tanks. Some are reared separately, and the rest are kept in tanks where they can see and smell the smell of predators, although these animals cannot really eat them.

'What we found was unexpected, more dead dragonflies when predators share their habitat with them,' said Rowe.

Larvae facing fish or predatory insects have a survival rate of 2.5-4.3 times lower than larvae not in such circumstances.

And then 11% of the larvae face the dead fish when they try to transform into adulthood, compared to only 2% of the larvae that live in an environment without fish.

'We have given newborn dragonflies through the metamorphosis stage to become adults, and find that the adults that grow around predators are likely to fail to complete the process. The morphology is higher, and often dies while undergoing this process , 'he stressed.