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    Tiny Termite predator stuns prey with farts

    July 2, 2015
    When hunger strikes the larvae of the beaded lacewing they emit a “vapour phase toxicant” which is another way of saying they fart on the termites to kill and then eat them up to 6 termites at a time as reported by wired. These predators are found lurking within a termite nest attacking termites from […]
    Tiny Termite predator stuns prey with farts

    When hunger strikes the larvae of the beaded lacewing they emit a “vapour phase toxicant” which is another way of saying they fart on the termites to kill and then eat them up to 6 termites at a time as reported by wired.

    These predators are found lurking within a termite nest attacking termites from behind or should I say from their behinds. During lab tests the experimenters found that the fume induced paralysis lasted for around 3 hours and if they weren’t eaten right away the termites eventually died and were eaten later.

    The experiment was tested on other insects that are commonly found in termite nests such as fruit flies, book lice and two different kinds of small wasp but they were unaffected by the toxicant. Not a lot is known about the Beaded Lacewings but there a many other relatives that have similar attach plans. A survey of more than 110 species found many of them were significant methane producers, especially roaches and termites

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