Australian beetles are attracted to wine bottles and lose interest in the opposite sex

When we hear about endangered species, we often think that this animal is very fragile, and these vulnerable species often have one thing in common - they live in very limited space.

If a species lives in a very wide area and they are everywhere, then their extinction resistance will be very strong, unless some very powerful force suddenly intervenes.

In fact, after entering the agricultural era, humans often play this powerful force, and many species with strong extinction resistance will also go extinct because of human activities.

Australia has many beautiful giant beetles, which are very popular in their colorful colors, but after the rise of beetle specimens, many beautiful beetles were pushed to the brink of extinction because of human capture.

However, there is one giant beetle that is also frequently taxidermied and popular, only to push themselves to extinction before people could catch them everywhere: the Australian gem beetle (Julodimorpha bakewelli).

The endangerment of this beetle is a little embarrassing. Their males are attracted to beer bottles, and even if the females are wandering around them, they are unmoved and focused on the beer bottle.

So the question is, why do Australian gem beetle males behave so strangely?

This beetle inhabits the arid and semi-arid regions of Western Australia and is widely distributed. At the same time, due to the harsh environment and inaccessibility, they are not greatly affected by human activities.

Most importantly, their larvae are active in the roots and trunks of eucalyptus trees, and in Australian nature, creatures that can bind to eucalyptus trees generally do not fare too badly.

Because the vast majority of trees in Australia are eucalyptus trees—about 77% of all trees in Australia, animals bound to eucalyptus trees are a bit like getting a lot of money, and life is naturally more moist.

However, many eucalyptus trees in Australia are poisonous to plants and animals, so not all creatures can get close to them, and the more famous one is koalas - they can eat eucalyptus leaves, think that animals like koalas can Survive and know what an advantage being able to eat eucalyptus leaves is for Australian animals.

In addition, this beetle can grow to 4cm when it is an adult. It can be said that it is a rather large beetle, so it is estimated that there will not be too many natural enemies.

In general, the Australian gem beetle should not be at risk of being endangered if it is in its natural habitat without intervention.

However, the appearance of the beer bottle changed the original balance.

Male obsessed with beer bottle

August and September are the breeding seasons of Australian gem beetles. These two months in Australia coincide with the coming of winter and spring, so many insects choose to complete their life-long events during this period.

The male gem beetles are smaller, they can fly about 1-2 meters off the ground, while the females are larger, they have no flight ability and have been crawling on the ground.

During the breeding season, males in flight seek out females on the ground, and when they spot a target, they swoop down to land and try to get the female's attention to achieve their ultimate goal.

However, in September 1981, two entomologists, Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz (the husband and wife), stumbled across something odd while they were exploring Dongara, Western Australia.

The couple observed that many of the male gem beetles did not land towards the female after their flight, but towards the beer bottle, which they climbed up just as they climbed onto the female's back.

There was all sorts of rubbish on both sides of the road, all left by travelers, but the male beetles seemed to be attracted to only one golden-brown beer bottle.

To prove this, the couple picked up two brown wine bottles and placed them in an open space, because it was easier for male beetles to spot in the air.

Unsurprisingly, after 30 minutes, the two wine bottles attracted a total of six male beetles, with five even crawling on one of the wine bottles.

And the wine bottle seems to have some kind of magic on the males, as long as they climb on the bottle, they will not leave, even if the female beetle crawls over it, it is indifferent.

In addition, the couple even found a male beetle bitten by an ant, and it didn't look like it was going to leave.

As for why males are attracted to wine bottles?

The answer became apparent when the couple took a closer look at an Australian female gem beetle.

The female gem beetles are also golden brown, about the same color as the wine bottle, and they also have bumps similar to those on wine bottles—those on wine bottles that are specially designed by the manufacturer to prevent them from falling off.

Apparently, the male beetles had mistaken the bottle for a female.

But bizarrely, Australian gem beetles belong to the Buprestidae family (beetles in this family come in a variety of shiny colors), and they mostly search for mates based on chemical information, which doesn't seem to be available in wine bottles.

However, later research found that the Australian gem beetles can see ultraviolet light, and they may use ultraviolet vision more to judge mates, and in this vision, the wine bottle is almost the same color as the female.

But in any case, it is rather strange that they did not judge the chemical information. Maybe the male really thinks that the bottle is a very good mate, so he ignores that the bottle has no chemical signal at all.

This statement is not without reason, as almost all male insects seek out larger females as mates, because in nature larger size means more egg cells to turn into offspring, as well as greater viability to ensure the production of offspring .

Apparently, the beer bottle is much larger than a real female beetle, and the male beetles have reason to believe that this is their ideal mate.

The Evolution Trap: The Irresistible Temptation

In fact, this kind of "mistake" phenomenon is very common in nature, such as the familiar "moth to the fire", the phototaxis of moths makes them rush directly to the flame.

The reason for this phenomenon is essentially an instinct that animals have trained through long-term evolution. Since it can become an instinct, it must be of great help to biological survival under natural conditions.

Many insects have phototaxis, and there is still no unified explanation for this phenomenon. Some insects like to use some natural light sources as a signal, and some insects use natural light sources for navigation. help, so phototaxis becomes an instinct.

When natural light sources become artificial light sources, insects are naturally misled by their instincts, and eventually lead to extreme phenomena such as moths flying into flames.

Over millions of years of evolution, the Australian gem beetle has trained a very powerful and efficient way of finding mates, probably through UV reflection to find larger mates.

But when they bumped into some Australian travelers who threw their wine bottles everywhere, the instinct for success that had been cultivated over millions of years collapsed, and they may even become extinct.

at last

In fact, there are many examples of the natural survival and reproduction of animals being affected by the existence of man-made products. For example, sea turtles will return to the sea under the guidance of moonlight after laying eggs. However, the existence of lighthouses prevents many sea turtles from finding their way back to the sea. .

If what human beings do is inadvertent, then the interesting thing is that creatures in nature are actually intentionally using these instincts of other creatures to achieve their own goals.

Australian crab spiders (Thomisus spectabilis), for example, never build webs or camouflage themselves to ambush their prey, but instead employ the exact opposite survival strategy - attracting prey insects by reflecting ultraviolet light.

Many insects are attracted to UV light, and this spider takes advantage of that.