Take that, vertebrates!

ResearchBlogging.org

I’ve known for a while that beetles and other inverts occasionally have vertebrates on their menu, but I didn’t really know how large of an animal they could subdue!  Even when the odd mantis grabs a hummingbird the size difference is not as substantial as is shown below.  This impressive video was published recently in the free online journal Zookeys.

 

Here is one of the figures from the paper, illustrating more beetles feeding on multiple species of Amphibians!

 

 

 

Gil Wizen, Avital Gasith (2011). Predation of amphibians by carabid beetles of the genus Epomis found in the central coastal plain of Israel Zookeys, 100, 181-191 : DOI:10.3897/zookeys.100.1526

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