Doing Orange and Black. Lasius niger, Black Garden Ant, and Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, Our Garden, Venlo, The Netherlands
Not wanting to go out to mingle in the massive weekend crowds endangering each other in this Covid-19 pandemic - it's called an 'intelligent lockdown'! -, I again pottered about in Our Garden (see yesterday's photo).
Late yesterday I'd noticed a lone Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, straggling about on our garden path, and this morning again. But in the afternoon, death had apparently come. I watched Garden Ants, Lasius niger, chewing Firebug apart and industriously taking its various parts to their underground nest. What, I thought, would happen to the chitin exoskeleton?
Soon I saw that that, too, was chewed into transportable sections (see inset) and shlepped home.
My question: chitin is virtually indigestible to insects and I suppose also to ants. In fact, you need the enzyme chitinase to dissolve that exoskeleton. But that chitinase is a very dangerous thing because it can also dissolve Ants' own exoskelton. So what goes on? how is that exoskeleton used in the bowels of the ants' nest? do perhaps digestible molds grow on it? Anyone out there in Flickrland with an answer? Thanks!
Doing Orange and Black. Lasius niger, Black Garden Ant, and Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, Our Garden, Venlo, The Netherlands
Not wanting to go out to mingle in the massive weekend crowds endangering each other in this Covid-19 pandemic - it's called an 'intelligent lockdown'! -, I again pottered about in Our Garden (see yesterday's photo).
Late yesterday I'd noticed a lone Firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, straggling about on our garden path, and this morning again. But in the afternoon, death had apparently come. I watched Garden Ants, Lasius niger, chewing Firebug apart and industriously taking its various parts to their underground nest. What, I thought, would happen to the chitin exoskeleton?
Soon I saw that that, too, was chewed into transportable sections (see inset) and shlepped home.
My question: chitin is virtually indigestible to insects and I suppose also to ants. In fact, you need the enzyme chitinase to dissolve that exoskeleton. But that chitinase is a very dangerous thing because it can also dissolve Ants' own exoskelton. So what goes on? how is that exoskeleton used in the bowels of the ants' nest? do perhaps digestible molds grow on it? Anyone out there in Flickrland with an answer? Thanks!