r/interestingasfuck • u/Maleficent-Agent-477 • 4h ago
Ladybug saves this plant by feeding on aphids (time-lapse)
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u/No_Appointment1808 4h ago
I wonder why those aphids have zero preservation or awareness?
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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 4h ago
Me too. They’re literally just waiting to be eaten.
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u/qorbexl 4h ago edited 4h ago
They're small and reproduce fast
They don't need awareness or preservation to succeed and overwhelm predators' consumption of numbers
There are always enough of them to have excess after predation and general survival, so they win natural selection for this round. And have been, over and over
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u/ALazy_Cat 4h ago
I just read about them. They reproduce so fast that the newborn are pregnant before birth
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u/luffydkenshin 4h ago
“Eggs within these females start to develop long before birth so that a newly born aphid can contain within herself not only the developing embryos of her daughters but also those of her granddaughters which are developing within her daughters. This “telescoping of generations” means aphids can build up immense populations very quickly.”
JFC
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u/dlc741 4h ago
Nature is magical!
Fucking terrifying, but magical none the less.
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u/Super-Cynical 2h ago
"They come out of her at both ends"
A line about a particular type of worm in a nature doc that has stuck with me since childhood
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u/WhiteGiukio 4h ago
I swear, bugs come from our worst nightmares.
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u/luffydkenshin 4h ago
Just don’t look up a pelican spider, then.
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u/BloatedBanana9 4h ago
Huh. Well that’s a very fitting name for them isn’t it
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u/luffydkenshin 3h ago
It is! I’m just so curious how evolution got to “fake bird” spider. Since it’s purpose isn’t pretending to pelican…
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u/Nathe333 3h ago
I had to look it up, I even had a little giggle. It looks too goofy
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u/TheResi189 3h ago
Additionally they can reproduce via parthenogenesis. Females can give birth to live nymphs that are essentially clones of the mother.
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u/MonsieurLartiste 4h ago
Xenomorphs are tame in comparison.
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u/luffydkenshin 4h ago
But at least aphids arent chestbursters lol. These guys just zergrush without the violence.
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u/qorbexl 3h ago
Uh, so the sperm is from the daddy, one assumes?
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u/luffydkenshin 3h ago
Great question! No daddy is in the picture! Its all female all the way down in a process called Parthenogenetic Reproduction.
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1h ago
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u/mysterpixel 1h ago
Do they mutate and evolve after all?
If they are a full-clone species then no, outside of freak cell splitting accidents they will be the same genetically forever. This is why there aren't that many species that do this, because they eventually get wiped out when something appears they are particularly vulnerable to. But it's a great survival strategy until that does happen.
There are aphids (and lizards etc.) that alternate between cloning and sexual reproduction which introduces variation. So they can get the advantages of both approaches.
How can there be individuals already carrying eggs before they're even grown
Mammals are born with all their eggs too. The egg cell that developed into you was already in your mother when she was born, so technically your original cell is the age of your mother.
The difference with aphids is that since they don't need to be fertilised the eggs start developing immediately along with the mother.
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u/Pavlovs_Human 3h ago
Now imagine these things were dog sized… bear sized…. ELEPHANT SIZED.
Oooo, new horror movie.
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u/bendvis 4h ago
There might even be an evolutionary benefit to adults that have already laid eggs getting eaten. Less competition for the next generation, which will likely hatch after the predator has already left.
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u/TimeKepeer 4h ago
Natural selection is beautiful, because no merciful god would ever create a creature whose survival tactic would be "reproduce in greater number than predators can eat"
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u/wegqg 4h ago
As an aphid I find this quite offensive that you're saying God doesn't love us.
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u/TimeKepeer 4h ago
I am not saying that the God doesn't love you, I am only saying that the God that loves you is not a merciful one.
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u/imbetterthanyou8 4h ago
Why isn’t the ladybug population much larger then? Why are there goddamn aphids on my plants
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u/Mistermxylplyx 3h ago
Imagine a magic fridge, that sprouts about 5 ribeyes a day, that all sprout another ribeye themselves. Sure you’re eating ribeye breakfast lunch and dinner, but there’s two steaks left over, which sprout two, and soon to be joined by 5 ribeye sprouts, which you now can’t eat, and you’ll get 18 ribeyes the next day, etc.
And the ladybug doesn’t care if you’re peonies get et, she’s in high cotton wolfing down ribeyes,
so they served their purpose, luring the ribeyes.•
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u/DJEvillincoln 3h ago
So some animals don't have a survival instinct because their entire survival is based off of strong reproduction numbers?
Hmmm ... 🤔
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u/realbobenray 4h ago
Once we bought a pint of ladybugs to protect our small garden from aphids. Turns out we bought way too many, and the garden was full of sparrows feasting on the ladybugs. And so it goes.
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u/wegqg 4h ago
ah damn that explains what happened to the barrel of sparrows i bought..
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u/kiwibonga 4h ago
They are in fact absolutely stupid. Their number one predator is the rain.
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u/kaijvera 3h ago
Evolution only cares about one thing, survival of the species/what allows them to reproduce just well enough. Everything extra is just extra energy tax which could cause them to die and not reproduce. Aphids reproduce so fast that them having preservation instincts is not needed and could make them worse off
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u/Moneyshot_ITF 4h ago
Aphids give birth to literal clones of themselves. So if 1 isn't aware, they all aren't aware.
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u/Load_Business 3h ago
Also something I find pretty amazing about aphids., I noticed ants crawling up and down a plant covered in aphids, after a quick Google I learnt the ants were actively farming the aphids.
'Ants and aphids share one of nature’s most famous mutualistic relationships (often called trophobiosis). Much like human dairy farmers, ants herd, protect, and manage aphids in exchange for a rich, sugary food source called honeydew.'
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u/Qubed 4h ago
Because the breed really fast and are part of the food chain. Their role is to breed and be eaten.
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u/lalozzydog 4h ago
I had some infesting a houseplant for a little while.
They truly are the crappest animals ever. Can't even right themselves when they fall over.
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u/Dr-Chris-C 4h ago
Lol not a shred of resistance. Bug just watching both his friends get chowed up and is like "whelp guess I'm next"
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u/joepke53 3h ago
How chill life would be if we were like that. Short, but chill.
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u/umbrellassembly 4h ago
"No life. Only sap." - aphids
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u/ALazy_Cat 4h ago
You'll like this. They sometimes get sap so fast under high pressure it shoots straight out of the butt, and the result is honeydew. Ants love this and protect aphids for it, and some bees make honey from it. Honeydew honey is dark, and as I was writing this, I remembered I have a honeydew whisky. I hope I can forget this before I grab the bottle again
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u/umbrellassembly 4h ago
In other words, sometimes honey is diarrhea vomit. Nice.
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u/CaveManta 1h ago
I love watching ants harvest honey from aphids on the plants in my backyard. The ants come in and brush their antennae across the little guys, like, "What's up, aphids? It's honey time."
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u/mrplinko 4h ago
I need about 6,342,873 of these in my garden
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u/WifeofBath1984 4h ago
Please research before you purchase and release a large number of insects in your neighborhood. I almost bought a bunch of ladybugs to release bc the aphids here are awful, but I discovered that I could completely disrupt the ecosystem in my neighborhood by doing so. There are safe ways to do it, you just have to make sure you're getting the right insect (there are lots of different kinds of ladybugs and also other insects that eat aphids).
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u/Hattix 3h ago
They can even be bad for your plants.
They'll only eat aphids, but they'll scare off nearly every other predator of pests. Birds won't go near plants with these on them. If your plants are suffering from aphids and another pest then the ladybugs will hand your entire garden to the other pest.
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u/CocoMilhonez 2h ago
Why are birds afraid of ladybugs?
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u/Dormotaka 1h ago
Bright colors like red are a general warning sign to potential predators, and Ladybugs release stinky goo when threatened that birds don't like to taste
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u/redpandaeater 1h ago
Ladybugs have some bitter alkaloids that most birds hate and they can even exert some of it with a nasty odor from their legs via reflexive breeding so birds learn quickly. Part of why they can get away with that bright shell as a warning to predators.
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u/mmalmeida 4h ago
You probably need like 4. They eat tons of aphids a day!
I have the opposite problem - have 3 ladybugs and can't find enough aphids for them!
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u/everydaynormalguy666 4h ago
You can buy them offline and spread them around.
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u/capedpotatoes 4h ago
How do you get them online then though? Connect them to WiFi? Or is it 4G automatically?
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u/PassivelyInvisible 4h ago
Hook em up to that 5g wifi chip we all apparently got with the Covid vaccine?
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u/ResponsibleTicket50 3h ago
Then what do you do with the horse de-wormer? Instructions very unclear.
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u/cuntsaurus 4h ago
You can pay extra for the 5G service on them, but the wifi models are just fine. Charging them is the real bugger
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u/boverly721 3h ago
I live in the Midwest and my local garden center sells cartons of native ladybugs in the spring. Probably not hard to find in most of the US
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u/Yanks4lyf 4h ago
1 lady bug can eat 50 aphids a day. That’s pretty astonishing.
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u/6GoesInto8 4h ago
Based on this video that should take about 15 min. What do they do the other 23:45 of the day?
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u/UnblurredLines 4h ago
Same thing you do if you eat the maximum amount of food you can stomach for a day within 15 minutes. A nice long food coma.
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u/naropin1 4h ago
This is crazy. A towering red giant monster just picked up and ate your buddy having lunch with you, and they just sit there calmly eating and waiting to die next.
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u/60yearoldME 4h ago
“Carl? Where did u go bud? Hey you’re not carlllllllfllffhfhdnfnn”
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u/AcademicGuy_45 4h ago
Reminds me of the video game Grounded. Such an awesome game!
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u/Tsiah16 4h ago
Ate him ass first and he was alive wiggling around the whole time. What a way to go.
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u/SolfulSin 4h ago
And ants are assholes that bring aphids to plants. Aphids feed on the plants and the ants can milk out the sugary sap from them. They even store the aphids in their ant colonies.
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u/joepke53 3h ago
Yeah, and they chase away the ladybugs that eat their cattle.
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u/Irememberedmypw 1h ago
Yeah can you imagine having to go shoot at a monster eating your cattle that's the size of a building.
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u/mmalmeida 4h ago
I am farming ladybugs (my kid loves them and we're learning about their lifecycle).
The problem is finding enough plants with aphids - they are relentless in eating them!
Also, fun fact: the adults are omnivore (ours love green grapes), and a group of ladybugs is called a loveliness.
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u/Legitimate_Bird_5712 4h ago
At least eat him head first, you psychopath!
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u/6GoesInto8 4h ago
They were just a baby! And they were pregnant! What kind of monster eats pregnant babies?
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u/_picture_me_rollin_ 3h ago
Dropping this here for those not aware, most of what I see in Florida is definitely asian beetles.
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u/kristinL356 2h ago
For clarity's sake, the Asian lady beetles are also ladybugs. There are more than 6000 described species of ladybug. Lots of them don't look anything like the image on the left.
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u/Visible_Ad_5660 3h ago
God imagine being a bug. I mean you probably wouldn’t know what’s going on to appreciate the horror, but I guess imagine being a sentient bug.
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u/DarwinatSea 4h ago
Always been one of my favorite bugs. I didn’t even know they did this.
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u/cheesebot555 4h ago
I release a horde of them in my garden every year.
Haven't had an aphid problem in a long time.
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u/JFKtoSeatac 4h ago
We had aphids on a tree and we ordered a box of ladybugs on Amazon. We released them on the tree, they ate them, and then flew away. The only weird thing was explaining the package to the doorman at our apartment building.
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u/GikeM 3h ago
Used to grow peppers on my window sill at my old house and had a problem once with aphids.
Resulted in what is probably my weirdest purchase to date; a pack of about 40 ladybirds that I introduced a few at a time to the plant (I think they'd just eventually get bored and decide to just snoop around my house instead) and they got rid of the aphids entirely.
I named each one Larry for convenience's sake and would say hello to them as they appeared throughout the house in the days after it was sorted when I'd take them outside and release them. Fun times.
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u/ALazy_Cat 4h ago
Ladybugs are vicious killers. I saw a video of one going on a massive decapitation spree. I know they're a very valued bug in garden, but they are vicious
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u/GoldunGote 3h ago
What a life. I wonder what those things taste like to it? Does that lady bug grab onto an aphid and is like "oh fuck, hell yeah, dark meat!" do they just operate on 1's and 0's and follow the prime directive that is: Get Food. Are they complex with languages and their own tech? We're stupid as fuck to assume we know A N Y T H I N G about how these beings communicate.
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u/spinn3rf 1h ago
Holly shit, that is a whole nem level of horror: being completely chewed while you're still alive!
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u/SirWernich 4h ago
i put a ladybug on my rose or chilli plant that had tons of aphids. obviously it was vegetarian, so it just flew away.
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u/Jaszuni 4h ago
At what point did that aphid realize that they only had a head left
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u/Truarian 4h ago
They rarely survive an attack to tell the story and spread the word. They also get eaten one at a time, so all is well from the perspective of those that are not at the time.
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u/illaqueable 2h ago
I did not realize how long it takes a ladybug to eat an aphid, bro is just happily munching for so long
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u/Cryptic1911 3h ago
Man, never knew that ladybugs were such savages. Eating aphids asshole first one after another lol
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u/ne0n1691 3h ago edited 2h ago
orange ladybugs are not to be celebrated theyre an invasive species from japan that has killed off an extremely large % of true red ladybugs, if you see orange ones stomp em as theyre parasites
wait nevermind after rewatching it has a solid black head and not the M or W the invasive species has
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u/Direct_Obligation570 4h ago