WEBVTT - The Bone Collectors, Part 2 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.360 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:16.440 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.959 And I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back part two in 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.040 the Halloween season series. We're calling the Bone Collectors about 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:28.360 organisms in nature that form Texas chainsaw massacre style collections 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.600 of bones and other dead body parts. In the last episode, 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:38.000 we talked first about the extinct cave hyena Crocutispialia, which 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.920 was a Eurasian apex predator of the Pleistocene Epic. These 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:46.280 animals are famous for assembling these big pits of animal 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.960 bones that are now found preserved in caves and the 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.960 caves where they lived around the world, and that in 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:58.760 itself provides interesting information about the adaptive characteristics of these animals, 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.959 mainly the fact that we sort of talked about them 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.360 as like a tractor model predator or scavenger, that they 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.639 were strong, had these powerful jaws, and I think, maybe 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.640 for some reasons of social cooperation as well, were able 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.039 to haul large amounts of animal carcass mass from kill 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.000 sites or from scavenging sites out in the world all 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.039 the way back to their dens, which were often in 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.880 caves and then you find these assemblages of bones in 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:24.440 the caves. 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.800 Yeah. Yeah, they're kind of like tow trucks. They're out there, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.200 they find a carcass that's been illegally parked, and they're like, well, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:31.880 we got to take this back to the garage. 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.480 And then after that we talked about an insect native 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.760 to a small stretch of forest in a mountain range 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.280 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, nicknamed the bone collector 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.720 caterpillar because of its unusual behavior of first of all, 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:53.120 living inside active spider webs and then covering its external 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:58.440 silk case with dead, dried out insect body parts shopped 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.640 from the spider's web, which there's no perfect analogy for 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.840 on our level, but I was thinking about it, like 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.160 if there were a species of bird that lived inside 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:14.120 a Kentucky fried chicken and primarily eight chicken scavenged from 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:18.560 people's tables, and completely covered the outside of its body 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.520 with leftover chicken bones so as not to be mistaken 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:25.240 by the people working there for like another chicken that 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:26.520 should be cooked or something. 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:29.120 I like it. You know, make this a terror bird 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:31.880 and put humans on the menu, and you've got yourself 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:33.040 a horror movie right here. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.560 I think now. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.360 In the case of the bone collector caterpillar, the reason 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.160 for the chopped up insect body part suit behavior is 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.440 not known with certainty, but researchers kind of suggested that 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.840 it may be a form of camouflage to protect the 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.639 caterpillar from the spider that it lives alongside. Somehow disguising 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.359 the caterpillar as trash something to be ignored. And we're 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.120 back today to talk about more so, Robin. 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:02.760 Sorry what, oh no, It's just it would be kind 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.680 of like if you were at a child's birthday party 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:12.360 and you covered yourself in the crust of pizza slices 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.079 and the bottom parts of cupcakes, you know, the parts 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.600 that the children buy and large do not eat, and 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.600 they would mark yourself safe from them, I guess, yeah, yeah. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.600 Or you're a piece of Halloween candy that eats Halloween candy, 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.600 that disguises yourself by covering yourself in candy wrappers. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:31.799 There you go, that work. 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.119 You would look like, what's already done with? I don't 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.480 need to pay attention to that anymore. That's for mom 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.200 and dad to clean up. Yeah, now, rob, if you 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.800 don't mind I was going to kick things off today 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.120 looking at a wasp. Would you like to do that? 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:46.560 Oh? 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.920 Yeah, I'm always game for another horror story from the 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:49.840 world of the wasp. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.760 There's a lot to choose from there. So in the 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.800 last episode, since we talked about the bone collector caterpillar, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.560 I guess it's obvious that we've expanded our criteria for 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.040 collectors beyond literal bones. We're not just looking at uses 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.560 for the internal skeletons of vertebrate animals. Because to be frank, 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:09.960 you know, I was looking at a lot of things 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.720 we could have talked about. I think some of the 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.800 best examples just come from the invertebrate world. That's where 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.320 a lot of the best stuff happens. So I wanted 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.560 to kick things off by talking about another insect example, 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.600 and that is the bone house wasp. The scientific name 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:29.159 for the species is Deuterogenia osorium. Ooh yeah, And that 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.200 species name, you might hear that in your brain there osorium. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.719 That comes from the word ossuary if you're not familiar. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.320 And ossuary is a storage space that could be a 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.280 box or something bigger, like a whole room or a 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.560 hall for the storage of human bones often used in 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.039 places where burial space is limited or at a premium, 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.400 So a common practice in many places would be that 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.320 when a person dies, they are buried or entombed in 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.320 a temporary spot. Later, maybe a year later, after the 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.359 decomposition of the soft tissue, the bones are cleaned and 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:10.320 removed from the temporary burial space and transferred to an ossuary, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.200 which could be a bone box or a chest, or 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.919 a space beneath the tomb, or just like a whole 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.039 bone building. Sometimes there are places with shelves crammed with 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.320 bones or rooms lined with bones. It's just another place 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.520 to put the bones. Now, why would a species of 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.599 wasp be named after a bone storage box, Well, we 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.800 will answer that question. This wasp was described in a 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.880 paper from twenty fourteen called a Unique Nest Protection Strategy 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.240 in a New Species of Spider Wasp, published in the 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:48.240 Journal Plus One by authors Michael Stobb, Michael ol Choudong Xu, 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:53.360 and Alexandra Maria Klein, and I was reading a bit 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.960 of background. Apparently, these insects were collected during a biodiversity 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.440 survey in the forests of Jungshi Province in southeast China, 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:07.600 where the researchers collected more than eight hundred chambered nests 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.120 from the wild and in the environment you would usually 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.240 find these nests. You would find them sometimes like dug 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.719 into the earth, or you would also find them maybe 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.760 in natural cavities or holes that have been bored into 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.120 pieces of wood. It'll be kind of like deep tube 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.520 shaped chambers, either in earth or in wood or something 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.919 like that. So these chambered nests, they were found in 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:32.880 the wild and then they were brought back to the 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.520 laboratory so that the researchers could examine the nests and 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.760 rear the larvae. In the larvae inside quote here we 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.800 describe a surprising nesting behavior that was previously unknown in 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.239 the entire animal kingdom, the use of a vestibular cell 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.080 filled with dead ants. So some houses have a mud room, 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.559 you know, sort of the outer room between the front 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.960 door and then where the house proper begins. These nests 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.760 have an anti chamber like that, called the vestibular cell. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.719 It's an ant room and it's filled with dead ant bodies. 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:10.240 Rob I've got. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.440 A photo of a cross section of a nest for 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.160 you to look at in the outline here, so you 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.200 can see the nest has a what you might think 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.240 of as a shotgun house design. It's deep and narrow 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.360 and deeper. You have what are called the brood cells. 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.600 This is where the wasp eggs are protected, sealed in 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:33.720 with these cemented doors made of maybe plant material, soil, debris, 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.760 and mud. And then in the outermost chamber you can 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:43.200 see this dusty jumble of mangled ant skeletons, just a 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.320 wad of dead ants. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.960 Oh wow, yeah, this is incredible and you know, for 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.000 many of us, speaking at least for the two of us, 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:54.280 but I think a lot of people out there. You've 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.280 grown up in an area that had a lot of 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:01.400 dirt dobber wafts or mud dabbers, various names, you would 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.600 inevitably figure out that they do a similar thing with spiders, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.480 where you'd find this cache of spiders hidden away inside 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:09.880 their mud nests. 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.920 Oh, these wasps do that with spiders too. We're actually 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.160 going to get a two for one here. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.400 so we're going to get ants and spiders in the 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:24.400 same nest. It's a smorgasboard of invertebrate horror. But so 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.120 the question is why. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:27.440 The ant bone room. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.080 While the authors discuss they start the paper by talking 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:38.000 about different evolutionary specializations in reproductive strategy, noting that certain 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:43.520 wasp species will specialize in trying to protect and ensure 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:48.360 the survival of a smaller number of total eggs compared 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.720 to the majority of their close insect relatives, which lay 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.120 more eggs but invest less in the survival of each one. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.600 So the majority of soft flies and wasp females will 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.280 be able to lay hundreds of eggs in a lifetime. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.599 But what the authors call the quote more advanced solitary 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:11.960 nest provisioning hymenoptera that they sometimes lay only a dozen 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.560 eggs or so, or even less than that in the 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.480 lifetime of a single female. So lay far fewer eggs, 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.480 but do a lot more to protect each one. And 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.280 the bone house wasp is in the latter group, the 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.440 kind that invests a lot more in each egg. It 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:32.360 is a solitary nest provisioning wasp in the family Pompility. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:37.280 The pompility are also known as the spider hunting wasps. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.200 And here we come back to what you talked about 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:43.400 with the spiders earlier. Within this family, Curiously, the adults 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:48.760 actually don't eat spiders. The adults feed mostly on plant nectar, 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.640 and they're vegetarians. They are not generally carnivores, and yet 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.600 they are some of the most fearful predators in a 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.400 way in nature, I guess, depending on how you want 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.920 to use the word predator. They're not eating spiders, but 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:09.320 they do attack spiders with a painful, paralyzing venom, not 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.560 so that the adults themselves can eat the spiders, but 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.720 so that the spiders can be entombed as a live, 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:22.800 non decomposing food source for their growing young. So yes, 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.560 these spiders in many cases, in most cases, will be 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.520 eaten alive in a paralyzed state. So the life cycle 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.800 for a spider hunting wasp usually goes like this. You 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.559 have adults, which you can feed on floral nectar. They 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:40.360 produce this paralyzing sting. They use the paralyzing sting to 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:45.000 attack and immobilize a spider, then they carry the spider away. 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:50.520 They lay their eggs alongside the paralyzed spider inside a 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.160 protected nest of some sort, often a hole or a 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.679 tube of some kind closed to the outside, to protect 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.599 the egg and the larva once it hatches, and I 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.760 guess presumably also to protect the spider as a food 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.000 source from being stolen. You know, you want to lock 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:07.040 up the fridge. 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:08.840 Hey, just don't leave that lane around. 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.160 Yeah yeah, it's like a bare box, you know, the roadbox. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:12.840 Yeah. 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:18.559 Yeah. And so the larvae hatch inside these protected nests 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.720 and they eat the spiders, usually starting instinctually with non 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.760 vital body parts, eating you know, eat, chewing through the 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.600 cuticle on the outside of the spider, eating the body 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.320 parts first that will not be lethal to the spider, 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.800 and then finally working their ways to the vital organs, 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.040 you know, eating the heart and the central nervous system 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.400 and stuff. And the goal is to keep the paralyzed 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:46.000 spider alive as long as possible so that it doesn't decompose. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:49.040 It kind of keeps the spider alive while entombed, to 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.559 take advantage of the spider's living physiology, like it's immune 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:55.640 system as a natural preservative. 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:58.200 Yeah. I mean it may sound cruel to us, but 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.960 you know, it's a wasp larva eat spider world out there. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.160 I mean, it's efficient, waste not want not. 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:04.600 Yeah. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:05.400 Yeah. 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:08.079 So they oh and then finally, of course, the larvae 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.720 they mature, they might pupate, emerge from the nest to 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.760 become these nectivorous adults and repeat the cycle. So everything 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.720 I just said is also the case for the bone 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.920 house wasp. These are these spider hunting solitary wasps. But 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:26.400 what separates the bonehouse wasp from its nest provisioning kin 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.600 is that the bone house wasp also goes to the 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.880 extra trouble of provisioning the nest with an outer chamber 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.160 what the authors of the paper will call again a 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:42.480 vestibular cell crammed with dead ants. Now, when I was 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.000 first reading about this, and I hadn't gotten to the 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.240 reasoning part of it yet, the first place my brain 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.439 went was, oh, bonus snack. Right, so you got your 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.880 spider and then you've got something else. My young will 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.199 emerge extra well fed because not only do they get 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.199 to eat a paralyzed spider alive bit by bit, they 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.400 also get to eat some ants for dessert. But no, 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.960 the ants are not there to be eaten. In fact, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.959 the ants in the vestibular chamber are completely ignored by 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.199 the larvae. The larvae never eat or come into contact 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:15.680 with them. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.520 Wow, okay, all right, so what are they for? Right? Yeah? 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.880 They can't be a decorative garnish. Surely they have to 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:24.640 have some purpose. 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.000 Yeah, they're closed up in there, right, so what are 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:32.600 they for? Interestingly, the authors note that many other Hymenoptera 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:38.240 species construct tubular nests with these outer chambers or vestibular cells, 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.000 but they're usually empty, and at the time of this 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.959 paper their function was not really known because previous research 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.080 had thought, well, you know, maybe these are protective in 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.200 some way, this outer empty chamber, it protects the brood inside, 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.240 But previous research had not shown these vestibular cells to 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.359 have any protective benefit for the eggs or larvae inside. 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.480 So what are they for? Because to be clear, protection 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:08.160 is a concern. I mean, these organisms sound very fearsome 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.840 because what they attack spiders and they paralyze them and 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.000 they eat them alive. But still the young are vulnerable. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:19.760 You know, you can have an adult parasitoid or predator 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.920 parasite of another species attack the nest, and the young, 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.400 the eggs or the larvae will be very vulnerable. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:25.800 Inside. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.960 There are other wasp and fly species that will readily 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.720 attack the nests and eat the eggs and larvae of 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.880 these solitary spider hunting wasps if they can get in there. 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.440 So the brood inside would benefit from protection. But these 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.960 commonly found empty vestibular cells don't seem to provide much, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.160 if any protection, at least as far as we can tell. Experimentally. However, 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.119 the authors of this paper found that when the vestibular 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.120 chamber is stuffed with dead ants, it seems it actually 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.360 does provide a protective advantage. The dead ants help keep 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:06.120 nest parasites and predators out. So how do they do that? Well, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.600 the authors raise a couple of possibilities which are not 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:16.320 mutually exclusive, chemical camouflage and chemical defense. Quote ants produce 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:22.200 a diverse array of organic compounds, including species specific cuticular 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.320 hydrocarbons or cchs, which are a central part of the 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:31.840 nest mate recognition system. Being long chained molecules of low volatility, 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:36.400 cchs persist on the cuticula of dead Hymenoptera for a 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:41.560 long time period, thus giving do Osarium nests the scent 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:47.440 of an ant colony. So you've got these cuticular hydrocarbons 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.520 that these chemical signals that persist on the body of 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.560 dead ants for a long time, and they keep the 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:59.040 brood chambers of the young wasps smelling like an ant colony, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.360 and if you are an inse, even a predator or 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.800 a parasite, you usually don't want to mess with an 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.880 ant colony. It's like in Grand Theft Auto when you 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:09.920 like go on the military base or something. You know, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.000 it's just like instant, overwhelming defensive response. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.640 Yes, yeah, it's it's quite a heist. As we alluded 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.400 to in the last episode. You can have specialists that 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.960 can do it, but it is it's a high risk environment. 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.880 The author is right quote. In this context, we find 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.640 it particularly interesting that the numerically dominating ant species ind 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:33.840 Osarium nests is p astuda, an aggressive, large bodied, and 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.800 common species in the study region that has a powerful sting. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.400 So they seem to be not just collecting any ant. 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.840 They're trying to get a certain kind of ant in 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.720 this dead ant room. And what they're selecting for the 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.680 ant bone box is an ant that is big and 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:56.320 ferocious with nasty venom, is stinky, and is common and 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.920 likely to have been encountered by local nest attacking insects. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.320 Yes, oh wow, Okay, now it's all coming together. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.480 The author's right quote. The proposed function of the ant 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.240 chamber is most effective against predators that break the nest 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.160 and against parasitic wasps that penetrate the nest with their 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.560 long ovipositor that would be an egg laying appendage, so 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.400 trying to put their own eggs inside the nest. Such 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:26.040 parasitoids attacked other trapped nesting wasps, including other pompility in 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.880 the study region, and may also attack Doosarium by penetrating 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.040 the wood that contains naturally the nest cavity. However, such 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:39.040 species were never found in nests of Doosarium, which was 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.560 only attacked by parasitoids which entered the nest prior to 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.680 the construction of the ant chamber. So the ant chambers 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.560 keep the bad guys out and they protect the brood within. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.480 And the authors note again that this is the first 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:56.119 case of a species of wasp found in nature to 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:01.040 build a nest chamber full of ant carcasses. Wonder nature is. 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.560 But getting back to our horror movie parallels. You know, 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.920 last time we were talking about some distinctions different kinds 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.560 of things that can be signaled when in a horror 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.959 context you encounter a big collection of bones, you have 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.199 like the Midden style collection of bones, where it just 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.720 you know, it suggests non intelligent chaotic predation. This is 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:27.080 just a trash pile that signals lots of death versus 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.520 the carefully assembled or curated collection of bones that are 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.400 creepy in a different way that suggests fascination or kind 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.600 of aberrant obsessions or behavior. This example makes me think 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.919 about the sort of Texas chainsaw massacre implications in a 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:48.240 different way. You know, what if you imagine, okay, the 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.560 saw your family and the Texas chainsaw masker. Yeah, they 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.880 got a bunch of bones around, But we always assume 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.679 that it's because they're being aggressive. What if it's not 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.640 because they're trying to terrify their victims for the fun 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.199 of it. They're not salting the meat. What if it 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.959 is to frighten onlookers in a defensive way, much like 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.320 the ants in this nest, to get them to stay 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.320 away from the house, avoid the brood. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.639 Yeah, yeah, that is kind of the vibe here. It's 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:17.840 so fascinating to think about because again we're talking about 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:25.080 an animal that is harvesting other animals, but not for food, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.840 but for essentially building materials and to serve as a 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.960 protective barrier. Yeah, and I mean it's really hard to 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.760 think of any other species. I'm just off the top 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.199 of my head outside of human beings that actually do 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.439 this sort of thing where I look to the natural 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:45.679 world and identify one living species not as food but 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.480 as something that should be killed for other purposes. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.520 Yeah, that is interesting, and to be fair, I don't 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.480 think this too closely. Could actually fit the events of 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.720 TCM if you watch it, but I don't know. I'm 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.399 imagining an alternate version of TCM where they line the 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.480 outside of the house with like, I don't know, they've 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.000 they've gone out and gotten a bunch of malt like guards. Yeah, 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.479 security guards from all kinds of places, and then they 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.760 just post up the security guard uniforms outside their house. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.840 Mmmm yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's not something that necessarily 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.320 translates completely to the human world, but within the world 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:25.000 of like insect communication, you can see how it would 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:25.840 speak volumes. 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.119 Either way, I think this definitely fits more into the 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:35.600 curated assemblage of remains than into the chaotic midden formula, 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.240 because these are not leftovers, like they were put in 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:39.480 there for a reason. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:52.800 Right right, Yeah, this is a great example. All right. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.200 I have a couple of other examples I want to 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.200 get to here in this episode. I'm gonna start though, 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.720 by returning to the decapod world. As we mentioned in 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:07.880 the last episode, hermit crabs are essentially the crab superstars 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.320 of pilfering the quote unquote bones. Again, we're being a 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:16.199 little liberal in our usage of the word bones of 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.199 the dead for their own use, the bones in this 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.440 case being the shells of mollusks that they use as 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:22.399 their own armor. 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:23.040 Hm. 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.399 But they are not the only decapods to get in 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.520 in this sort of action. Famously, we also have the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:34.760 decorator crabs of the Superfamily majority. Now, not every species 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.040 in this family is a decorator crab. It's more broadly 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.119 considered I think the home of the spider crabs, but 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:46.120 still that's where we find decorator crabs. And there are 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:50.119 also other crabs outside of the superfamily that use similar adaptations, 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.359 such as the kelp crab. And we also might compare 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.160 this to the way pom Pom crabs or boxer crabs 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.440 carry sea enemies around one in each claw or one 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.200 on each claw, kind of brandishing them as living weapons. 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.679 Yeah yeah, Well, these things have come up on the 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.000 show a bit before, and I never thought about them 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.280 in a creepy context or in a bone collector kind 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:17.600 of way, go thinking, okay, maybe they're attaching various sessile 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:21.240 organisms to their back. This seems kind of hospitable in 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:21.639 a way. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.720 I mean, they're grabbing animals and using them as weapons. 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:26.600 It would be like if there was a guy running 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.159 around the subway with a rat in each hand, chasing 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:33.480 at your people. You know, we would be it would 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:34.439 be a little off putting. 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.840 Yeah, But with the crabs, it's so cute. 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:41.080 Yeah, all right, so let's consider this this next example then, yeah, 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.600 the decorator crabs. So essentially, what decorator crabs do is 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:50.000 they camouflage themselves by considering their living environment, you know, 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:54.520 but not simply mimicking it with you know, their coloration 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.760 or their morphology, but by taking bits of that environment, 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:03.080 living parts of that environment in many cases, and sticking 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:07.280 that to their body. Essentially, they have the cetae on 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.600 their backs, like on their carapace. These are like little 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:17.040 hooklike often compared to velcrow situations, all over their shell 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:21.280 and this allows them to just reach out, strip a 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.880 little some living or non living portion of their environment 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:29.560 and just slap it on there and then this becomes 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:33.240 part of their protective array. Has pointed out in a 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:36.960 nineteen eighty Scientific American article about decorator crabs by Mary 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:40.920 kay Wixton, other kinds of seta on the shell are 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.879 more sensory, and their job is not to hold stuff 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:45.760 in place so much, but to sort of keep track 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.639