Self-defense beetles by lying fake dead

Some beetles often lie dead for familiar reasons: avoid being attacked by prey. New research has found a reason for success in these pretending times: doing so means that beetles use their neighbors to give it.

Takahisa Miyatake of Okayama University, Japan has long been studying red mite (Tribolium castaneum) with spiders eating it, Adanson spider or Hasarius adansoni. When spiders attack, the batter will enter into a state of fake fake death to avoid being eaten.
To find out exactly why this tactic was successful, Miyatake and his three colleagues bred a line of powdered moths with fake characteristics that died for twenty minutes and one that did not have this movement. They then studied the interaction between spiders and beetles in both lines.

Picture 1 of Self-defense beetles by lying fake dead The Adanson Spider is looking at a red batter. (Photo: Takahisa Miyatake)

The researchers found that spiders prefer to prey more freshly, so they are less interested in eating a dead mock.This is especially true if there is a fresh beetle next to it. If a dead mock appears in front of a spider, the probability of being eaten is 38%. But if the spiders have a choice between a dead mock and an offspring, it will re-feed the moth not to die in almost all cases. The results remained unchanged when the spiders were given the choice between a deadly red powder and a non-mock non-dead beetle.

Researchers conclude that dead beetle beetles clearly have more chances of survival, especially when it is next to another moving animal.

Details of the study results are presented in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Update 16 December 2018