2013-03-21, 08:23
#37
Officiella tråden om Myror!
2013-03-21, 09:28
#38
2013-03-21, 10:08
#40
2013-03-21, 19:14
#42
Kom för en tid sedan över ett stycke information som skakade min verklighetsuppfattning i grundvalarna. Myran är inte det übertier jag föreställt mig, t.o.m den möter ibland sin skapare p.g.a ett annat djur. Visst, det var ju uppenbart redan sen innan, att en myrslok kan äta sig mätt på myror och att en björn kan demolera en hel stack, men oavsett om en myrslok äter en handfull myror eller en björn gräver upp hela stacken överlever nästan alltid såpass många att det antingen knappt märks någon skillnad (myrslok) eller i vilket fall tillräckligt för att en eller flera nya samhällen skall kunna byggas upp (björnen). Och om de nu skulle gå under, så gör de det i vilket fall på ett ärofyllt sätt, som på sin tid väringagardet eller bysanterna. Men inte den här gången, den här gången sjunker de först ned i smutsen innan de försvinner ur historien på ett lika ärofyllt vis som den där amerikanske pojken som hade bröt nacken när han försökte suga av sig själv... Skurken i dramat är en oansenlig skalbagge vid namn Lomechusa Strumosa, faktiskt så pass oansenlig att det inte ens finns en wikipedia-artikel om den. Vad som händer när den kommer i kontakt med fanns beskrivet från början till slut i en artikel jag inte kan hitta igen, men det finns som tur är en mängd andra att klistra ifrån.
http://daffodil2010.hubpages.com/hub...rd-working-ant
Det var alltså det. Myrorna låter parasiter äta upp deras ägg och larver för att parasiterna bjussar på knark (nåja, inte riktigt så simpelt). De bär till och med sina ägg och larver till parasiterna, för att de slippa resa sig från sina divaner. Det verkar på vissa som om de yngre blir allt färre och färre, tack vare att så många äts upp av de ständigt tillväxande lomechusorna, enligt andra verkar just den här delen inte utgöra det huvudsakliga problemet. Tvärtom är det att arbetarna sitter neddrogade i stacken och på sin höjd yrar runt planlöst en stund, som får saker att slutgiltigt gå åt helvete. De som syns arbeta på utsidan är till största del av en yngre generation, snart också de torskar.
Blir stacken anfallen räddas lomechusorna före de egna larverna, som ofta till och med lämnas, för att myrorna är för neddrogade för att ens fatta vad som händer. Stacken möter snart sitt öde.
Två saker som är lite ironiska med detta. 1. att Lomechusorna, sluga parasiter av guds nåde, går under av myrornas kärlek. Myrorna behandlar dem otroligt bra enligt myrmått mätt, men skalbaggar är som bekant inte myror. Det går för dem som för hundar som kärleksfullt matas med handgjorda chokladpraliner.
"Kärlek är gift för den orättfärdige".
och 2. att knarkare använder Lomechusan som ett argument för droganvändning! "Men det är ju naturligt, till och med myrorna gör det".
http://www.forteantimes.com/reviews/...chedelics.html
Inget emot knarkare, men man tycker ju att det borde finnas en gräns för hur idiotiska argument det går att använda sig av.
Citat:
The species within the genus Myrmica and Formica are parasitized by a beetle, the Lomechusa, which penetrates in the colonies and gives a sweet substance from worker ants trichomes, the hairs on the bottom of the elytra (forewings that protect the beetles' s abdomen). The substance Lomechusa offered by the worker ants to act as a "drug" that the ants can not do without, and that makes them vulnerable. Once addicted, the workers of the colony in the nest parasitized host the Lomechusa and stop treating their children. Thus, the Lomechusa feeds on the larvae without reaction by the worker ants. The colonies are parasitized by Lomechusa consist of doped worker ants, which die soon after leaving the nest empty. Species parasitized by Lomechusa ants are commonly called "lomecusomani".
http://daffodil2010.hubpages.com/hub...rd-working-ant
Citat:
The most interesting of these ant-affinities (myr*mecophiles) was his own species, Xenodusa (Atame*les) cava. This is a reddish-brown beetle, about one-fifth of an inch long, with tufts of yellowish hair-like tubes on the sides of the abdomen. From these hairs exudes a sweet secretion upon which the ants feed, as upon the honey-dew of aphides, and it is this fact which attracts ants to them or assures their toleration of them. Specimens of this beetle were also taken by or for LeConte in ant nests of unknown species in Maryland, Illinois, and Michigan. Among these was one still held in its host's mandibles, as if taken while in flight from the disturbers of its nest, and clung to with unrelaxed jaws in the alcohol which killed it.
Our American carpenter ants (Camponotus) in several species and varieties are often the hosts of X. cava. All the beetles of this group, the Lomechusa group of Staphylinids, are true ant-guests. They are treated by their hosts, both as adults and larvae, quite as their own fellows, being fed, cleansed, and carried about. Indeed, it is said that in case of real or fancied danger, the beetle larvae and pupae have precedence of their own young in the ants' attention.
This is all the more remarkable because, according to Father Wasmann (S.J.), a devoted and distinguished observer, and perhaps our highest authority on myr*mecophilous insects, these adopted citizens repay the host's care by ravenous assaults upon their own brood, devouring numbers of eggs and larva. The effects of this, in weakening the commune, are apt to be serious. It works toward deterioration, as Wasmann shows, in another way. This brood - parisitism appears to originate a curious form of abortive individuals intermediate between the female and the worker, known as pseudogynes. They are cowardly and indolent. They decline to dig and nurse, and trot about the nest aimlessly. Thus, in sharp contrast with the valiant and active workers, they hold a sort of "frustrate existence."
How comes this about? Wasmann believes, and seems to prove, that it is caused by the diminished care and diet due to the queen larvae for their full development - a case of restricted growth through defective nourishment. A brood of beetles (Lomechusa) begin life with a brood of worker-ants. The beetle larvae, as they appear, are not only generously fed by the ants, but begin to feed upon their eggs and larvae; and as they are extremely voracious and grow rapidly, they devour enormous numbers. This makes a great breach in the generation of coming ant-workers. These are essential to the commune, and the adults aim to make up the lack by converting into workers some of their larva, destined for queens. This results in that intermediate form, neither worker nor queen, but a spurious female - a pseudogyne.
Our American carpenter ants (Camponotus) in several species and varieties are often the hosts of X. cava. All the beetles of this group, the Lomechusa group of Staphylinids, are true ant-guests. They are treated by their hosts, both as adults and larvae, quite as their own fellows, being fed, cleansed, and carried about. Indeed, it is said that in case of real or fancied danger, the beetle larvae and pupae have precedence of their own young in the ants' attention.
This is all the more remarkable because, according to Father Wasmann (S.J.), a devoted and distinguished observer, and perhaps our highest authority on myr*mecophilous insects, these adopted citizens repay the host's care by ravenous assaults upon their own brood, devouring numbers of eggs and larva. The effects of this, in weakening the commune, are apt to be serious. It works toward deterioration, as Wasmann shows, in another way. This brood - parisitism appears to originate a curious form of abortive individuals intermediate between the female and the worker, known as pseudogynes. They are cowardly and indolent. They decline to dig and nurse, and trot about the nest aimlessly. Thus, in sharp contrast with the valiant and active workers, they hold a sort of "frustrate existence."
How comes this about? Wasmann believes, and seems to prove, that it is caused by the diminished care and diet due to the queen larvae for their full development - a case of restricted growth through defective nourishment. A brood of beetles (Lomechusa) begin life with a brood of worker-ants. The beetle larvae, as they appear, are not only generously fed by the ants, but begin to feed upon their eggs and larvae; and as they are extremely voracious and grow rapidly, they devour enormous numbers. This makes a great breach in the generation of coming ant-workers. These are essential to the commune, and the adults aim to make up the lack by converting into workers some of their larva, destined for queens. This results in that intermediate form, neither worker nor queen, but a spurious female - a pseudogyne.
Citat:
http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/we...cus-100-3.html
It had long been known that other insects, such as rove beetles, live in ant colonies as social parasites: the ants raise the beetles’ larvae, and feed and protect the adult beetles. Hölldobler wanted to find out how that was possible, as ants are renowned for hunting and devouring intruders. He was able to prove that over the course of evolution, the parasitic beetles had deciphered the ants’ communication code and could mimic it so effectively that the ants fed and cared better for them than for their own larvae and nestmates.
Det var alltså det. Myrorna låter parasiter äta upp deras ägg och larver för att parasiterna bjussar på knark (nåja, inte riktigt så simpelt). De bär till och med sina ägg och larver till parasiterna, för att de slippa resa sig från sina divaner. Det verkar på vissa som om de yngre blir allt färre och färre, tack vare att så många äts upp av de ständigt tillväxande lomechusorna, enligt andra verkar just den här delen inte utgöra det huvudsakliga problemet. Tvärtom är det att arbetarna sitter neddrogade i stacken och på sin höjd yrar runt planlöst en stund, som får saker att slutgiltigt gå åt helvete. De som syns arbeta på utsidan är till största del av en yngre generation, snart också de torskar.
Blir stacken anfallen räddas lomechusorna före de egna larverna, som ofta till och med lämnas, för att myrorna är för neddrogade för att ens fatta vad som händer. Stacken möter snart sitt öde.
Två saker som är lite ironiska med detta. 1. att Lomechusorna, sluga parasiter av guds nåde, går under av myrornas kärlek. Myrorna behandlar dem otroligt bra enligt myrmått mätt, men skalbaggar är som bekant inte myror. Det går för dem som för hundar som kärleksfullt matas med handgjorda chokladpraliner.
Citat:
http://www.archive.org/stream/psycho...muoft_djvu.txt
It does not affect the ants in the least, that the Lomechusa-larvae again and again devour the eggs and young larvae of the ant colony by the wholesale ; on the contrary, they even carry these changelings to the clumps of eggs and larvae to facilitate their work of destruction. Unless a superior Wisdom had provided that the ants themselves, by their stupid affection, prevent the excessive increase of the Lomechusa population, the number of these guests would become so large as to destroy all the sanguinea-colonies. But there is no danger of any such calamity ; for, the ants deal with the Lomechusa-larvae during their pupation just as they do with their own, imbedding them carefully in a vault of earth. After a short time, the ant-larvae having meanwhile spun their cocoons, are again removed from the earth. This latter measure applied to the Lomechusa-larvae proves fatal to them. The larvae of these beetles do not spin a solid cocoon, but only an extremely flimsy, silken web, which tears as soon as they are unearthed ;soon after the Lomechusa-larvae are again carefully imbedded at some other place, then they are taken out again, carried about, again imbedded, until at length they become dry and perish. In this manner the folly of the ants causes most of the Lomechusa-larvae to die before they are changed into pupae ; and even those, which have fortunately entered the state of a pupa, are often unearthed by the ants and devoured, perhaps from an excess of affection? According to my long continued observations on the development of Lomechusa strumosa in normal sanguinea-colonies only those larvae escape destruction, which, after having been imbedded in their little cave, are forgotten by the ants; all the rest are hopelessly doomed; of 100 larvae, therefore, at most about 10 reach the stage of imago, sometimes scarcely one. For instance in
the observation nest illustrated on p. 23 in May, 1896, about 150 Lomechusa-larvae, the offspring of 10 Lomechusas, were reared under the most favorable conditions both of nutrition and temperature ; from these 150 larvae I obtained one single Lomechusa!
the observation nest illustrated on p. 23 in May, 1896, about 150 Lomechusa-larvae, the offspring of 10 Lomechusas, were reared under the most favorable conditions both of nutrition and temperature ; from these 150 larvae I obtained one single Lomechusa!
"Kärlek är gift för den orättfärdige".
och 2. att knarkare använder Lomechusan som ett argument för droganvändning! "Men det är ju naturligt, till och med myrorna gör det".
http://www.forteantimes.com/reviews/...chedelics.html
Inget emot knarkare, men man tycker ju att det borde finnas en gräns för hur idiotiska argument det går att använda sig av.
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