This is a misleading title to say that least. The reason why is because (as hopeless as it is) I want to know waaaaaaaaaay many more things that the ones I am about to list, not just predatory or defensive behaviors. I guess these are just the ones that occupy my mind today… I would love to know how did they evolve.
The reason why I consider these predatory behaviors weird is because for the most part, one would think that relatively complex behaviors require relatively complex nervous systems. In many of these cases, the organisms responsible for these behaviors do not have an overtly complex nervous system and in more than one case, they do not have a nervous system at all!
Here goes, how did the following aspects of biology evolve?
*Japanese honey bees are known for cooking predatory hornets to death.
*The many types of parasitic organisms that change the behavior of their hosts… Heebie jeebies time!
*The tarantula hawk is a type of wasp that as the name implies, attack and kills tarantulas, but not immediately. The wasp’s sting does not kill the spider, it paralyzes it. Then the waps carries the prey to a burrow and deposits an egg, leaving the tarantula as live, really fresh food for the developing larva.
Can you think of other examples?
Do I smell a book, perhaps titled “Weird ways to die” or “Weird ways to kill”?
(;-)
I would love to hear what you think!
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