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
That’s amazing! what kind of beetle was it?
It’s a ground beetle in the genus Epomis (Carabidae). It looks like these beetles are roughly around the 20-25mm range.
The DOI that you provide at the bottom is not properly linked. It should go to DOI:10.3897/zookeys.100.1526.
For further videos relating to the paper, sjá hér.
Thank you for the correction, and link!
viss, but what about updating your broken link above?
Því miður, link works fine now.
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