The beetle Regimbartia attenuata manages to spring unscathed from the digestive tract by wiggling its legs to stimulate the defecation reflex. A particularly bizarre technique which is probably unpleasant for the frog, nevertheless, is nothing compared to other strategies used by some insects.
There are certain terrible experiences in the life of a frog. Like for example swallowing a Regimbartia attenuata. While most gulp insects lose their lives in the stomachs of their predators, this beetle manages to extricate itself from the frog’s digestive tract by crawling through its gut and escaping through its anus.
Shinji Sugiura, associate professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at Kobe University in Japan, has been studying anti-predator defenses in wetland insects for years. In 2019, he was surprised to see the beetle R. attenuata emerging from the anus of the pond frog Pelophylax nigromaculatus. To find out more, the biologist repeated the experiment 15 times in a study published in the journal Current Biology on August 3. His results indicated that 93% of the bugs came out alive out of the frog’s anus, most of the time tangled in fecal pellets, but very active.
Making Its Way Down Town
It appears that R. attenuata has a technique of its own for escaping the particularly acidic environment and the lack of oxygen in the stomach. When Shinji Sugiura gave the frog another species of beetle to eat, Enochrus japonicus, the latter inexorably perished and was excreted in the fecal contents 24 hours later.
R. attenuata manages to extract itself from the frog in record time, ranging from one to six hours maximum. Rather than passively waiting to slide towards the anus, the beetle adapts and activated defenses to get out of its perilous situation. The process: when the legs of beetles are coated with sticky wax, they inexorably die in the digestive tract. ” R.attenuata probably uses its legs to stimulate the frog’s intestine and induce the defecation reflex ,” suggests Shinji Sugiura.
On the other hand, the experience must be particularly unpleasant for the frog Pelophylax nigromaculatus (imagine a beetle tickling your stomach and emerging, wiggling in your stool).
