Science Sunday - Feeling like a curious child again

I ran across this photo on FB, a photo of walking stick eggs come in a variety of colors and sizes. 

"Phasmids are an are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects. Each species of stick insect produces an egg that is unique in shape and design." 

I mean how you not be curious, after seeing this photo of by Levon Biss. I mean,who would not want to know more about these?!

The Incredible Phasmid Egg. Stick insects have eggs that look exactly like seeds. Scientists can’t figure out why these masters of camouflage would lay eggs that resemble bird snacks. Looks like the eggs resemble seeds for a reason.  

"As Hughes and Westbory explain, for stick insects that leave their eggs on the leaf litter, the eggs are intentionally attractive. Eggs of these species have an unusual structure called a capitula, a lumpy appendage stuck to the end of the egg. Its function was a mystery until Hughes and Westbory compared the eggs to actual seeds, some of which have their own appendage called an elaiosome.  

The elaiosome is filled with fat, with one main purpose: to attract ants. The ants take the seeds with elaiosomes back to their nests and bury them. Fooled by the capitula, they do the same with phasmid eggs. The buried eggs gain protection from parasitic wasps. Baby stick bugs then hatch safely beneath a couple centimeters of soil. The whole system is a great example of convergent evolution, when two completely unrelated organisms, an insect and a plant, independently evolve similar adaptations. 

In fact, the resemblance between seed-mimicking eggs and actual seeds might even be more complex. Many plant seeds are irresistible food for birds. The birds eat the seeds, which survive digestion and then germinate in the bird’s feces. The otherwise immobile plant uses the bird to disperse its offspring. Entomologist Matan Shelomi, writing in the Journal of Orthoptera Research, decided to test if this strategy applied to phasmid eggs by feeding them to chickens and quails. Many phasmid eggs are coated in a tough material called calcium oxalate. The coating is probably mostly defensive, but it also requires strong acid—like that you’d fine in a vertebrate stomach—to break down. Alas, while the birds ate the eggs with gusto, the eggs did not survive being digested."

 They keep them a pets? 

 

Great camouflage!

  

Laying an egg