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Biology: Some water beetles survive being eaten and excreted by a frog

Introversion

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/water-beetle-frog-eaten-alive-escape-death-butt-excretion

Science News said:
For most insects, the sticky, slingshot ride straight into a frog’s mouth spells the end. But not for one stubborn water beetle.

Instead of succumbing to the frog’s digestive juices, an eaten Regimbartia attenuata traverses the amphibian’s throat, swims through the stomach, slides along the intestines and climbs out the frog’s butt, alive and well.

“This is legitimately the first article in a while that made me say, ‘Huh! How weird!’” says Crystal Maier, an entomologist at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. “There are still a lot of truly bizarre habits of insects that still wait to be discovered,” she says.

Surviving digestion-by-predator is rare, but not unheard of in the animal kingdom. Some snails survive the trip through fish and birds by sealing their shells and waiting it out. But research published August 3 in Current Biology is the first to document prey actively escaping through the backside of a predator.

...

With zero intent to pun: That’s kinda bad ass...
 

Chris P

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Lol. I saw that article and considered posting it. I'm not sure which is more impressive, the frog or the bug.
 

Introversion

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I wonder how often the frog goes, “Whoa, infinite food!” and just swallows the beetle again? :ROFL:
 

ChaseJxyz

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Yeah I was gonna say "sounds like another Ig Nobel prize contender." I think the other one I saw recently was "Bisexual men exist."

Also those frogs should have listened to their mothers and chewed their food good before swallowing.
 

shortstorymachinist

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I read this to my wife and she said that's clearly just Ms. Frizzle doing an amphibious anatomy episode. I agree.