🪲🐸 The Arch-Nemesis Of Pepe 🐸 🪲

Beetles commonly fall victim to frogs. That's just common knowledge. But turns out there's a fascinating group of beetles that flip the script!

Introducing Epomis!

So, this is a subgenus of beetles that I only heard about today, best known for being obligate role-reversal predators during the larval stage. In simple words, frogs don't eat them. They eat the frogs. And other amphibians as well 😄

Oh, and they feed exclusively on them, at least on the larval stage! To lure them they often make prey-like movements and after evading the first strike it's time for the hunter to become the hunted. The larvae (up to 2 cm long) immediately strike back and latch using their mandibles. Then they begin to suck the bodily fluids much like a parasite. Eventually they start eating the rest of the tissues.

Here's a video showing this in action

And another one

The larva continues to feed on the host until it molts and moves on to find a new one. Eventually it will become an adult beetle. Adults are generalist predators that will also snack on larger amphibians here and there.

Here's a video of an adult individual attacking a much, much bigger frog

Nasty!

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This is just the quick rundown of this fascinating group of beetles! As always, Wikipedia is your best friend if you would like to read more about them :)

Tagging @enginewitty cause he loves this shit

Ok friends, this is it for today. See you soon with more animal oddities 😄

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