In addition to the Northeast giant orange, are there any other "tigers" with outstanding combat capabilities?

The Year of the Tiger is here, and all kinds of popular science about large cats are flooding the Internet again. But Calendar Girl decided to break the cliché and talk about those creatures with the word "tiger" in their names and attributes, but they are not real cats.

Tiger fish with big teeth

by Seafood Knowledge

The giant tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath), which lives in the Congo River Basin and Lake Tanganyika, is only a fish, but only the Nile crocodile can shake its dominant position.

It is nearly 1.5 meters long, weighs more than 50 kilograms, and has a mouth full of sharp teeth about 2.5 centimeters long. If you have seen the teeth of a piranha, the teeth of the giant dog characin are an upgraded version of its armed, and even have to form specific grooves in the mouth to accommodate such large teeth. Compared with piranhas that attack in groups, the giant dog characin is good at muddying the surrounding water environment, affecting the vision of the prey, and using its sharp vision to launch a rapid and fierce attack on the prey. Its powerful bite force can cut the prey in half with just one bite.

Five species of characin fish, with the largest one at the bottom being the giant characin | Sarah AM Goodier et al. / PLoS ONE (2011)

The giant dog carp is ferocious and extremely aggressive. Some people believe that it has been injected with an evil spirit, which makes it so strong and ferocious. The giant dog carp is sensitive and solitary. In its native place, fishermen have had their fingers bitten off by it, and swimmers have also been bitten by it. Although there is no direct evidence that it has killed humans, it is speculated from its aggressiveness that it should be no problem.

People's knowledge of giant dog carp is still very limited. However, this ferocious tiger among fish can now be seen in aquariums and even in aquarium markets in many parts of the world.

The fast and beautiful tiger armor

by Red Queen

The tiger beetle is a ferocious carnivorous beetle with brightly colored elytra, huge eyes and sharp jaws, making it look somewhat like a ferocious cat.

The tiger beetle is the fastest known animal in terms of body proportions. Cicindela hudsoni, an Australian tiger beetle, can run 125 times its body length per second. If humans had such fast running speed, their speed would exceed 800 kilometers per hour!

Tiger beetles hunt various insects with their fast legs. Because they run too fast, tiger beetles cannot receive enough visual information when chasing prey, so they must stop from time to time to see the location of the prey before continuing to chase. The tiger beetle with the scientific name Chelioxya binotata can glide on the water surface, and it can even "walk lightly" onto the floating wood on the water surface to catch insects on it.

The beautiful tiger beetle Cicindela duponti | Jeevan Jose / Wikimedia Commons

Although its serrated jaws look very ferocious, the tiger beetle can only eat liquid food. It crushes its prey with its mouthparts, and then uses digestive enzymes expelled from its midgut to dissolve it into something like broth. After sucking up the "broth", the remaining insect shell can be vomited out with a "poof!"

Although the tiger beetle is very beautiful as an adult, the larva is very ugly. It makes its home in a cave and hangs itself on the wall of the cave with the hook on its back. If an insect passes by the cave entrance, it will bite it with its sharp jaws and drag it into the cave as a meal.

Tiger beetle larvae launch surprise attack | HB Tang / youtube

Brutal giant hornet

by Sandieji

Among the many bees that can sting people, the most dangerous are the ones commonly known as hornets. Hornets are the common name for insects of the genus Vespa in the family Vespidae. The largest and most ferocious of them is the golden-ringed hornet Vespa mandarinia, commonly known as the giant hornet.

The golden ring wasp has a large yellow head and a yellow and black abdomen, like a tiger's gorgeous fur. The golden ring wasp is a social insect that lives in groups. It collects wood fibers, digests them into pulp with digestive juices, and then builds a nest on the ground or under the roots of trees. The nest is spherical and has a delicate and complex structure.

If you accidentally approach or step on the nest of the giant hornet, you may be attacked by them in groups. The sting of the golden ring hornet can attack people continuously. The toxins include histamine, hemolytic and neurotoxins, which can cause liver and kidney failure or even death in severe cases.

Giant golden ring wasp | Washington State Department of Agriculture / Flickr

The severity of a wasp sting is directly related to the amount of venom that enters the human body and is also related to the person's physical condition. It is worth mentioning that people who suffer anaphylactic shock after being stung by a wasp will react more strongly the next time they are stung by a wasp, endangering their lives. Some people also experience delayed allergies after being stung, which are fine at the time, but only develop after a few days.

If you have an allergic reaction after being stung by a wasp, you need to seek medical attention immediately, otherwise it may be life-threatening.

A Wasp nest in a tree hole | US Department of Agriculture / Wikimedia Commons

The most common "tiger" around us

by Lin Yejie

Jumping spiders are also called flycatchers. Their eight large eyes do look a bit like a "tiger staring at you". The black flycatcher (Plexippus paykulli) is probably the most common "tiger" that people see around them. In human residences, they often walk along indoor walls in search of mosquitoes and midges; in the wild, they hunt in bushes and fallen leaves. Jumping spiders are all diurnal spiders, and the black flycatcher is no exception.

Jumping spider catches fly, snap, very fast (this is 0.5x speed)! | dzikieswinie / youtube

As the name suggests, spiders are active predators, eight-legged "fly-catching tigers". Black fly-catching tigers hunt during the day and are more efficient, catching dozens of mosquitoes a day. When hunting, they first use a traction thread that acts as a "safety rope" to fix on the surface of the object, and then "hungry tigers pounce on their prey".

Black flycatchers are inactive at night and hide in silk sac nests in secluded places. Males and females are sexually dimorphic, with males having black and white bodies and females having more mottled bodies. Black flycatchers have the habit of guarding their eggs. After laying eggs in a private sac nest, females will guard the young until they can move independently.

Black and white flycatcher | Lu Qianle

"Plant Devil" Knotweed

by Amon

When talking about knotweed, many people will think of the protagonist of "Jujutsu Kaisen", Yuji Itadori, who seems to be an ordinary kid, but becomes a powerful enemy of a group of demon hunters. Just like the knotweed, a gentle plant from East Asia, which was brought to the UK by the British as a garden plant, but with its strong vitality and destructive power, it can roam in various spaces without withering, just like "The Wandering Boy Nagara".

Knotweed is a rare tall herb in the Polygonaceae family, with thick stolons. The aboveground part will die in autumn, but the stolons will crawl underground like in "A Hidden Labyrinth That Only I Can Enter". When it sprouts in spring, it becomes an infrastructure destroyer like in "Slime Goes Back to the Past", whether it is cement or asphalt roads, it will drill into the gaps and destroy them.

Japanese knotweed looks quite friendly and was once grown as an ornamental plant | AfroBrazilian / Wikimedia Commons

During its growth, the roots and rhizomes of Japanese knotweed can release a variety of flavonoids, stilbenes and anthraquinones into the environment, inhibiting the growth of other plants and harming the fungi in the soil that coexist with native plants, thus destroying native vegetation. Due to its damage to the foundation, if Japanese knotweed grows in the yard, the property price will plummet, which makes the British hate it even more.

Although Japanese knotweed is rampant in its invaded areas, it is not as aggressive in its native areas. The reason is that it has natural enemies such as animals to control it, and the native plants that have coexisted with it for millions of years have also developed a certain degree of defense against its allelopathic substances. The destructive power of Japanese knotweed, which is "like a wolf or a tiger", will only make people "fear it like a tiger" in an environment where it is out of control.

Authors: Seafood Knowledge, Red Queen, Sandie Ji, Lin Yejie, Amon

Edit: Red Queen

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