What's up frens!
I am back with yet another cool animal oddity I just learnt about.
I am sure you have heard about antlions, the larval stage of insects in the family Myrmeleontidae, which dig pits to trap small prey like ants.
Well, it turns out there is a totally different type of insects that has followed a similar evolutionary path.
Allow me to introduce you to the family of family Vermileonidae. This is a type of fly of about 80 species in which the larvae also build pits in sandy areas and feed on small prey that happens to fall into.
Their pits work pretty much in the same way. The prey gets trapped by its own weight, thanks to collapsing loose sand, which in turn alerts the wormlion. The hunter then starts to inject venom and digestive fluids to the prey and soon after..Dinner is ready.
This is imo a striking example of convergent evolution aka when organisms that aren't closely related evolve similar features or behaviours to deal with the same problems.
Here's a great video by Deep Look explaining their hunting behavior and showing one such individual in action:
And here's another one showing a few more individuals:
It's just amazing how two totally different built larvae have come to employ the exact same strategy. Especially when the antlion looks totally ferocious while the wormlion totally... innocent 😇
Here's a link to Wikipedia if you feel like reading more on Myrmeleontidae.
Ok frens, this is it for today.
See you soon with more bizarre oddities from mother nature!