A research group led by Haruhiko Adachi, a graduate student at Osaka University's graduate school, has revealed for the first time in the world how thick and thick beetle larvae dig holes in hard ground.
Beetle larvae live in the soil, so they need to dig a hole to move.However, the beetle larva is not suitable for digging a hole because it looks like it.If it is as thin as an earthworm, it can repeat peristaltic movements to make holes in the soil like a drill.Also, if you can stick your front legs forward like a mole, you can scrape off the soil.However, beetle larvae have a very thick body, a round head at the tip, and short limbs, so they cannot be dug like earthworms and moles.
The research group made a device that can observe the movement in the ground in real time and can freely change the hardness of the soil, and observed the digging technique of the beetle larva.As a result, when the ground is soft, the larva digs linearly while peristaltic like an earthworm, but when it hits a hard ground, it digs while shaving the soil by continuous rotational movement such as turning back. I found it.
The results show that the movement of insects in soil, which has not been studied so far, is surprisingly intelligent and diverse, and is new to the field of ethology. It is said to cast light."Many beetle fan children may be more interested in living things and may make interesting discoveries themselves," the researchers said.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Pivot burrowing of scarab beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) larva
