Taurodemus varulus

[Vermiform]

​

Spoiler: And a secret cameo from the invisible jewel of the arthroworld

 

[jane]

what the fuck that's nuts

 

[Vermiform]

what the fuck that's nuts

Bark beetles have armoured spiky asses most of the times since their heads are deep into that bark with only dat ass exposed.

As for the sapphire, it's one of the few animals that can truly go invisible, unless you count microorganisms but they're just transparent by default which is cheating.

 

[Vermiform]

Also bark beetles can be sophisticated eusocial animals almost rivalling ants and termites in terms of sheer innovations.

More Fun Than Fun: Beetles Lead Complex Social Lives in Dead Trees – The Wire Science

science.thewire.in

Biedermann and Taborsky made a more detailed study of behaviour within the galleries of X. saxesenii, focusing on the division of labour. They recorded six behaviours that they called digging (extending the galleries), cropping (caring for the fungus garden), allogrooming (cleaning each other), balling (compacting waste), shuffling (getting rid of waste), and blocking (protecting from predators and preventing larvae from getting lost).

They found a new form of division of labour rarely found in ants, bees and wasps: division of labour between the adults and the larvae.

The larvae of ambrosia beetles do their bit to maintain the galleries. The larvae specialise mainly in digging and balling; young females specialise in cropping and shuffling; mature females in cropping and blocking; and the adult males specialise in allogrooming.

As in the previous experiment with hygienic behaviour, they found that mature females are less likely to disperse if there is work at home. Their strategy makes sense because there are readymade opportunities to gain indirect fitness by staying at home compared to gaining direct fitness by dispersing.

Ants may have the power of sisterhood and termites might have their mighty castles but eusocial bark beetles have child labour!

 

[Vermiform]

In all seriousness though, ant larvae are pathetic and pretty much useless outside chewing food and puking in their sisters' mouths. That's because hymenopterans (wasp, ants, bees and sawflies) have larvae that are way waaaaaay too dependant on either care or provision, they are almost always legless, eyeless, with no hard shell or any ways to protect themselves.

Then we have termites where there are no larvae as they're basically cockroaches and don't go through complete metamorphoses essentially making the young just smaller and weaker versions of the adults with small differences. Nymphs as they're called can do almost all work in the hive and if needed morph into reproductives or soldiers.

And then we have beetles whose larvae are more often than not as vicious and active as the adults, with the notable exceptions of dedicated herbivores like most scarab beetles for example, the larvae of ground, rave and diving beetles are just murder machines that sometimes end up being deadlier as larvae than as adults. Epomis beetle larvae for example don't rely on their parents' strategy of munch on frog but rather their own teen punkish method of let frog eat me then I start eating frog from inside and bust out then move to frog face and munch on frog eyes until frog dies and parents are proud.

In short... Beetle babies don't give shit and they certainly don't take shit either.