New Scientist TV: Born to be Viral: Beetle in death battle against toad

Here’s the description from New Scientist:

It takes guts to prey on a live animal much larger than you, but ground beetles seem to be up for it. In this video captured by Gil Wizen and Avital Gasith from Tel Aviv University, Israel, a beetle of the genus Epomis attacks a toad, paralyses it, then consumes it. It’s a rare instance of an invertebrate preying on a vertebrate, but these insects are specialised predators of amphibians and also eat newts and salamanders.

So how do they do it? The team observed beetles in the lab and found that when they attack a toad, they start by biting its back leg. Then a beetle will jump on its back and hang on despite vigorous attempts to throw it off. After about 40 seconds, the toad gives up the struggle and the beetle moves to its abdomen where it feeds on it for about 2 hours. Some small frogs are consumed in just half an hour, with only a few bones left behind.

Awesome!

(Note – For those of you using the feed, you may have to go to the actual blog post or visit New Scientist to see the video.)