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Details after the show.
Yep, this millipede is glowing.
That otherworldly aura is what a predator might see under the moonlight.
Our eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see it without using a special UV light.
The glow is a head’s up: this millipede is packing a lethal surprise.
When dusk falls in the hills east of San Francisco, Zystocheir dissecta millipedes emerge from
their underground havens to go foraging.
Even with all those legs, they’re kinda slow.
If you’re a hungry bird, frog or spider – a millipede looks pretty yummy.
So, time for defense.
Most millipedes curl up into a ball.
But Zystocheir dissecta takes it up a notch: it unleashes chemical warfare on its enemies.
See those little holes?
They’re ozopores.
They secrete an invisible, deadly gas: hydrogen cyanide.
Cyanide blocks cells from using oxygen, essentially suffocating their victims.
The millipede can spray enough to take down a bird or a mouse.
Yeah, so most critters want to be far away.
Really far away.
The millipedes have developed an immunity to their own toxin, so they’re unaffected.
But there’s one tiny beetle that’s developed an immunity to the gas, too – which means
it can take the millipede’s impressively noxious attack.
For Promecognathus crassus, millipedes are their favorite food.
Wait, really?
The millipedes are like five times bigger and covered in armored plates.
But the beetle has these: long, scissor-like jaws.
The hunt begins.
The beetle jumps on and rides the millipede like a bucking bronco.
Then it clamps down behind the millipede’s head, slowly wrestling it into submission.
Some scientists thought the beetle was trying to sever its nerves so it can’t release
cyanide.
Now, they think it’s just the only way to take down the giant.
Either way, those blasts of cyanide gas aren't doing anything.
The millipede tries plan b: curling up tightly
But the scuffle has attracted a rival who wants the feast for itself.
The latecomer is outta luck, though.
This tenacious beetle has dug in.
It’s sawing away, trying to take the head clean off.
Then, it can devour the juicy innards.
According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, this beetle is the
first documented case of a predator being resistant to cyanide.
Just goes to show – in a biological arms race, you’re never on top for long.
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