There will be no more braining today, as once again I got about two hours of sleep. But believe me, these ZeFrank Animal awards (an 11-minute episode) are better than anything I could produce. As always, I do my best.
The winners (I’ve added some links if you want to read more about the behaviors):
Springtails (good jumpers)
Brachycephalus toads (can’t jump very well)
Leiopelma frogs (can’t jump well, either)
Marmot (?): best “clown shoes” call
Meerkat (gravid)
Greater Sage-Grouse (can’t get a mate)
Leaf beetles and tortoise beetle (keep their own feces and past molts to use as shields)
Leaf beetles in the genus Neoclamisus that are great fecal mimics
Skipper caterpillars that flip their poop far away from their bodies
Glass-winged sharpshooters (leafhoppers) that pee at high speeds with an anal stylus
Asiatic honeybees that repel invading hornets by plastering feces around their nest entrances.
As you see, ZeFrank has a thing for animal excretion.
I wonder if the bees that repel the giant wasps with animal dung are the same species that envelop giant wasps and vibrate until the wasps die of heat exhaustion (as described in WEIT). Could bees develop two anti-wasp mechanisms? They’re probably different species.
Always terrific. I am still geeking out about the last one on clams that parasitize fish.
Great stuff, enjoyed that.
Speaking of “animal excretion”, here’s a recommendable book:
David Waltner-Toews: The Origin of Feces: What Excrement Tells Us About Evolution, Ecology, and a Sustainable Society (ECW Press, 2013)
I love this quote: “Before life, there was no shit.”
“…endless forms most beautiful”