Ingenius Marvels

I came across several nature related posts which were worth jotting down.


First, a piece on the natural fly predators of the invasive fire ants of the southeast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiJgsPUYahs

I was stunned at the cruel ingenuity of the fly: it injects eggs into the headcase of an ant, itself a remarkable feat considering how fast those things move.

Next, the eggs hatch, feeding on nutrients in the ant. But, to ensure a more stable place to grow, they ensure the removal of the ant's head from its body!

Using that skull case as a sort of coccoon, they hatch in peace. Remarkable!


Second, the venus fly trap. I saw a digg post on youtube videos on these, and then read the wikipedia article.

Again, just breathtaking simplicity carried to a beautiful conclusion. The venus flytrap has essentially a spring loaded mechanism, poised to close its jaws over stray pray.

It uses a very simple, and elegant, heuristic to decide when to close its jaws: if two of its sensor hairs are triggered. So simple!

Further, the movement of the captured animal triggers further closure - if it's small enough to escape, all the better as that allows insignficant prey to escape! Elegant.

Interestingly, the average 'flower', as a plant can have multiple, only preys 3-4 times during its lifetime. So in a sense the video is capturing a rare event.