Home>>Column>>Insect

The "sacrificial" spirit of the gall bug

2023-05-02 21:08:24 191

The source of nutrition for gall larvae is not so much enjoying stored food, but rather treating its mother's body as delicious food. As mothers, they fully demonstrate a "selfless" dedication.


The gall worms hatch out larvae from eggs in the spring. These larvae seem to be congenitally deficient and cannot mature at all, but they can miraculously reproduce. The gallworm larvae give birth to their children inside their bodies instead of laying eggs as usual. Once there are 8 to 13 daughters in their bodies, the mother's body will be eaten away from the inside by these daughters, leaving only a shell. The mother's dedication and sacrifice will not make the daughters feel ashamed, because they have to accommodate more than a dozen daughters to eat away in their own bodies. Only the female larvae of the first generation of gallworms that emerge in the autumn can survive the cannibalization and carving up by their children and preserve their bodies. They can smoothly transform into pupae and then emerge from the pupae into adults.

animal tags: