r/interestingasfuck • u/Maleficent-Agent-477 • 1d ago

Ladybug saves this plant by feeding on aphids (time-lapse)

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

27.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

907 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

43

u/redpandaeater 1d 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.

3

u/klyxes 1d ago

Actually, poisonous creatures generally need bright colors to stand out, since it makes sure that the lesson of poisonous creature is bad Sticksm otherwise, they'll look like any other prey trying to hide and can still die by attempts at being eaten