Some fig wasps have zinc plated ovipositors. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a12957/foun...
Knowing that it is possible to have these genetic traits makes me feel that humans are even more delicate than first thought.
Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
11–20 of 71 posts
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't help empathizing with animals in such a situation. It must be like getting teleported into an otherwise empty room with a tiger in it. (Turns out that humans with chainmail fare a lot better than those without!)
Ants individually are just happy to be of service to the queen. They should put a picture of the queen nearby as motivation.
Pheromones of the queen you mean.
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#13https://archive.is/vZeQP
Wow, archive.is is aborting on non-standard user agents. What a horrible practice.
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#14Correct link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/11/leaf-cutt...
Why is this comment not higher up? The current link returns a JSON response:
{"message": "Adapter not found"}
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#15Another interesting animal, an iron snail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-foot_snail
I don't think I've ever came across them before, but not even 20 minutes ago I was just checking out the deep mining wikipedia page that also mentions the same snails.
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#16Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#17Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#18I just got this when I tried to hit the page:
{"message": "Adapter not found"}
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#19Some fig wasps have zinc plated ovipositors. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a12957/foun...
And some blood worms have copper fangs!
And various other wasps have heavy metals concentrated near the apex of their mandibles.
There's also resilin, an elastic-like compound(?) that concentrates energy at certain parts of insect joins, used during jumping, or other fast movements.
Re: Leaf-cutter ants have rocky crystal armor, never before seen in insects
#20Correct link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/11/leaf-cutt...
Changed from https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/anima.... Thanks!