Until now, it was common sense that insects eaten by birds would die without exception, including their offspring.On the other hand, research groups such as Kobe University, Kochi University, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology said, "If an insect is eaten by a bird, the eggs inside the insect may be excreted without being digested." When we made the hypothesis and tested this hypothesis, we succeeded in obtaining the result that when the birds were fed with the eggs of Nanafushi, some of the eggs were excreted intact and hatched.
For plants that cannot move by themselves, the distribution area is expanded by having animals such as birds eat the fruits with the pulp as a reward and excreting the seeds with feces without digestion.However, many birds feed on insects as well as fruits.Inspired by this, the research group wondered if insects, like plants, could use birds as "vehicles" to be carried far away.
Therefore, we fed bulbuls with stick insect eggs, which are known to be hard and strong, similar to plant seeds, and examined whether the eggs were excreted intact.As a result, it was found that 5 to 20% of the eggs of Neohirasea japonica, Ramulus irregulariterdenta, and Neohirasea japonica were excreted intact.Furthermore, it was also confirmed that in the ramulus irregulariterdenta, hatching actually occurs from the eggs collected from bird droppings.
This study, which revealed that when stick insects are eaten by birds, the eggs in the stick insects are excreted without being digested, and that they can hatch and contribute to the expansion of distribution, overturned the conventional wisdom and made birds. It has been shown that insects may still leave offspring even if they are preyed on.It can also be said to be a result of giving new knowledge to the theme of how organisms that seem to have poor mobility achieve long-distance travel.
Paper information:[Ecology] Potential role of bird predation in the dispersal of flightless stick insects
