Why are rod beetles present throughout the planet?

Being swallowed alive seems to be a death sentence for all living things, but for some rodents, they proliferate after being eaten.

It was an interesting discovery published by Ecology Research Group at Kobe University in Japan.

Mechanism of taking advantage of enemies to expand the habitat of rod bugs - (Photo: Kobe University).

For a long time, the widespread distribution of rod bugs from the mainland to distant islands confused the scientific community. The study found that after being eaten by birds, larvae of eggs can survive in the digestive system until they are discharged without harm.

To study, the group gave the brown-eared bulbul to the eggs of three species of insect bugs. After being swallowed alive, about 5-20% of the eggs are excreted safely, especially the species whose whole eggs hatch successfully.

This shows that birds not only play a role in spreading plant seeds but also insect eggs.

However, for insect eggs to survive through the digestive system, there are a number of conditions: hard egg shells, eggs that can hatch without fertilization, young insects that come out of the shell must have self defense. Rods meet all of the above conditions.

In some species, female rodents are able to reproduce sexually, they lay eggs into children without fertilization by storing sperms (in seminal vesicles) and fertilizing the eggs just before "sinking. ".

Egg larvae in the feces of birds offering crests and larvae crawling out of eggs - (Photo: Kobe University).

In addition, the larvae of the larvae are significantly harder than plant seeds. After hatching, young larvae move on their own to find suitable leaf grass to eat.

The results of this study partly solved the mystery of the presence of rod bugs all over the planet: they did not move on their own but took advantage of being eaten to spread the race to other remote lands, open wide living environment.

"Next step, the team will analyze the gene structure of rod beetles , " said Assoc. Kenji Suetsugu works at Kobe University.

"Based on that, we will investigate whether there is a similarity between the insect's genetic structure with the bird during the flight and whether there is any similarity between the rod and the plant and the use of a spreading bird race".