If you use the electric eel's electricity to shock an electric eel, will the electric eel be electrocuted to death?

If you use an electric eel to shock an electric eel, will the eel be electrocuted to death?

Can parasites be parasitized by parasites?

Will maggots grow on maggots?

Do dung beetles push their own poop?

If you use snake venom to poison a venomous snake, will the venom kill the snake?

Are you confused just by looking at the questions? Today, we will sort out these nesting doll problems one by one.

Use electric eels to shock electric eels,

Can electric eels be electrocuted?

Generally no, but injured electric eels may be electrocuted.

Discharging electricity is a form of defense and hunting for electric eels. Electric eels also use weak electric currents to communicate or search for prey. Among the currently known electric eel species, the highest voltage they can discharge is 860 volts [1].

The electric current of electric eels can stun or even kill many animals, including large ones. In 1807, Alexander von Humboldt drove about 30 horses and mules into a pool of water filled with electric eels. Two horses died in just five minutes.[2]

So what would happen if you used an electric eel to shock another electric eel?

In fact, whether the electric eel discharges electricity itself or other electric eels discharge electricity nearby, the current will flow through the water around the electric eel, so it makes no difference who discharges the electricity.

Electric eel's electric organ丨By Miropa01 - Own work, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81734818

In the long-term evolution, the electric eel has developed an insulating layer on its body surface, which can effectively resist the electric current in the water. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the electric eel will not be electrocuted to death if it is electrocuted by another electric eel.

But there is one exception - when an injured electric eel or a very young electric eel faces an adult high-voltage electric eel, the former is in danger of injury or even life.

Therefore, when an electric eel is electrocuted, the electric eel will generally not be electrocuted to death by the electric eel's electricity, but an injured electric eel may be electrocuted to death by the electric eel.

Do parasites live on parasites?

Yes, very much.

Parasitic wasps lay their eggs on a variety of hosts, including aphids, beetles, butterflies and moths. But what’s special is that some parasitic wasps specialize in parasitizing other parasitic wasps (no nesting dolls!), a phenomenon called “ heteroparasitism ”, such as the parasitic chain of “ aphid-aphid braconid wasp-aphid braconid gall wasp ”.

Aphidius sp. is one of the protagonists of the classic case of hyperparasitism. The host of Aphidius sp. is aphids. The female Aphidius sp. uses the ovipositor at the end of her abdomen to inject her babies into the aphids. The babies of Aphidius sp. grow up by eating the aphids. This is the daily life of an ordinary parasitic wasp until the appearance of Alloxysta sp.

Dragonfi is parasitizing aphids

The name of the aphid wasp Long-backed Gall Wasp is very direct. It belongs to the Long-backed Gall Wasp group and specializes in parasitizing aphid wasps . The aphid wasp Long-backed Gall Wasp will specifically look for aphids that have been parasitized , and the aphid wasp babies in these aphids are its real target.

After finding a special aphid, the aphid gall wasp will inject its eggs into it. After the eggs hatch, they will feed on the large babies of the aphid wasp that have already started to grow (aphid OS: I was poked twice, it’s so unfair!!).

Aphid wasp long-backed gall wasp that specializes in parasitizing aphid wasp babies | Cedarcreek

In this example, there are only two parasites, so it is also called double parasitism, which is a common case of heavy parasitism. As the parasitic chain becomes longer, there will be more rare triple, quadruple, and even quintuple parasitism.

Haviland.MD once observed an example of quadruple parasitism: an aphid (the first host) was parasitized by aphid wasp, which was primary parasitism; the aphid wasp was parasitized by a small wasp to be identified, which was secondary parasitism; the small wasp was parasitized by a parasite, which was triple parasitism; and then, the parasite was parasitized by a large mole wasp, which was quadruple parasitism.

In short, there are cases where parasites parasitize parasites, and there are cases where parasites parasitize parasites that parasitize parasites .

Will maggots grow on maggots?

This generally does not happen in nature, but it can happen in the laboratory with specific operations.

Will maggots grow on living maggots?

There are no reports of flies parasitizing on maggots, that is, there is no evidence of maggots growing on live maggots in nature. If fly eggs are artificially implanted into maggots, it may be possible for maggots to hatch from live maggots, but no such experiment has been found.

Maggots | Picture Worm Creative

Will maggots grow on the remains of maggots?

However, if you collect a lot of maggots, crush them and make a culture medium, and plant fly eggs on it, the remains of the maggots can meet the nutritional conditions for the flies to hatch and grow. At this time, the maggots will grow on their bodies after they die.

That is to say, maggots in nature generally do not grow into maggots, but maggots in the laboratory can grow into maggots under specific operations .

Do dung beetles push their own poop?

No. The dung beetle's dung is too small and lacks nutrients, so the little dung beetles don't want to eat it.

Dung beetle is the common name for dung beetles. There are more than 5,000 species of dung beetles in the world, most of which feed on mammal feces.

Most dung beetles make dung balls for breeding. After making a compact and dense dung ball for breeding, the female dung beetle will make an opening at the top of the dung ball and leave space for the egg chamber, and then lay a precious egg in it.

But in fact, the dung ball rolling skill that made dung beetles famous is only possible for some species of dung beetles. Many species of dung beetles directly dig holes under the dung and bury the dung underground as a delicacy for their larvae.

Dung beetle rolling dung ball | Tuchong Creative

Female dung beetles also apply some special secretions (perhaps containing antibacterial ingredients) near the eggs to ensure the survival of the eggs. Most female dung beetles also cover the dung balls with a layer of soil, which becomes very solid after drying, playing a protective and moisturizing role. The larvae of dung beetles develop in this dung ball and will not leave until they grow into adults.

According to research by Sean D. Whipple and W. Wyatt Hoback of the University of Nebraska, dung beetles prefer the feces of omnivores, especially humans and chimpanzees.

Dung beetles on rhino dung | ImageChong Creative

The dung beetle's own feces are very small and have no nutrition for the dung beetle, so the dung beetle baby cannot eat it. Therefore , if the dung beetle's dung ball is not covered with a small amount of its own feces, the dung beetle will not push its own feces .

Can venomous snakes be killed by their venom?

Sometimes, it depends on the situation.

Take out the snake's venom and inject it into its own blood

Different snakes, different results.

Snakes such as the krait, cobra, serrata, and viper are immune to their own venom and that of other snakes, but not to the venom of other venomous snakes. However, snakes such as the fish-eating pit viper (Agkistrodon piscivorus) will be killed by their own venom, and the viper (Vipera aspis) will kill itself if it comes into contact with more than a certain amount of its own venom.

Snake accidentally swallowed venom while injecting it's prey

This assumption is really embarrassing... But it won't die, because the venom itself is equivalent to its saliva. Otherwise, the prey it eats will poison it to death.

A snake bites itself and injects venom

This situation should not happen, venom is very precious. Not to mention biting themselves, even in fighting with the same species, they basically do not use venom. Except for attacking prey, sometimes when attacking humans when harassing them, they also adopt non-venomous bites (Dry Bite).

A snake bites another snake of the same species and injects venom

Venomous snakes of the same species generally do not cause poisoning when they bite each other because they are immune; however, the pit viper mentioned above is an exception.

However, when venomous snakes compete with each other, they usually do not use fangs and venom. Instead, they compete in endurance. A snake that lacks endurance and has its head crushed will simply slip away in failure.

In addition, for example, King Cobras prey on Rattlesnakes, and Bungarus multicinctus often prey on Fujian Green Snake (Trimeresurus stejnegeri) venom. This is because the former are immune to the venom of the latter and are not afraid of being poisoned to death.

In a word, when using the venom of poisonous snakes to poison poisonous snakes, some of the poisoned snakes will be killed by the venom, but some of the poisoned snakes will not be killed by the venom. The specific situation depends on what kind of poisonous snake it is and how to use the venom to poison what kind of poisonous snake.

References

[1] de Santana, CD, Crampton, WGR, Dillman, CB et al. Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nat Commun 10, 4000 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11690-z

[2] Humboldt A. Jagd und Kampf der electrischen Aale mit Pferden[J]. Annalen der Physik, 1807, 25(1): 34-43.

[3] Zhu Ruzuo, He Junhua. Parasitic phenomena of parasitic natural enemy insects[J]. Insect Knowledge, 1978(01):26-29.

[4] Hyperparasites of Aphid Parasitic Wasps: www.uvm.edu/~entlab/

[5] Chen Wei. Study on the hyperparasitism and overparasitism behavior of the fly pupa golden wasp[D]. Anhui Normal University, 2016.

Author: Jiang Xiaochuan, Ge Yingqiang, Rickychan, Wu Xiaoka is a good kid

Editor: Jiang Xiaochuan

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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