Before having children, this is a question I figured was only asked of grade school youngsters. Now, I know better. This week I have been learning a lot about fireflies via school homework. One fact that has stuck in my head is they are carnivorous. The meal of choice of the larvae and adult is the slug. Through their little tube-like mouths they inject old slime trailer with their own version of novocaine. And while their being numbed they are being digested. Nice huh. Later the fire fly just sucks out the goodies. Just thinking about that is almost enough to put me off food for a week; almost.
Another gruesome fact is they are cannibalistic. In one subspecies of firefly the female lures over (come here big boy) the male of another subspecies by faking him out with her light. And when old hot to trot flies over, she eats him.
And I used to think they were cute.
1 comment:
Your post reminded of an article in yesterday's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/science/09mama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It talks about animal mothers that are indifferent to one of their children dying. I guess it's good for survival of the species for the healthier kid to live, but...
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