Turtle-eating insect discovered


Kirkaldyia deyrolleiFrom the BBC:

A giant water bug has been photographed eating a juvenile turtle in an unusual predatory role reversal.

Large bugs in the Lethocerinae family have been known to prey upon small vertebrates including fish and frogs.

But unlike insects that often fall prey to reptiles, scientists have observed one particular species of bug eating snakes and a turtle.

Dr Shin-ya Ohba recorded the unusual behaviour during night sampling in western Hyogo, central Japan.

Writing in the journal Entomological Science, Dr Ohba describes observing a Kirkaldyia deyrolli eating a Reeve’s pond turtle in a ditch next to a rice field.

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