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How Not to Be Eaten
The Insects Fight Back
Gilbert Waldbauer
With illustrations by James Nardi
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press, one of the most
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2012 by Gilbert Waldbauer
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waldbauer, Gilbert.
How not to be eaten : the insects fight back / Gilbert
Waldbauer ; with illustrations by James Nardi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978—0-520—26912—5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Insects—Defenses. 2. Insects—Predators of.
I. Title.
QL496.W336 2012
595.7—dc23
2011024488
Manufactured in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support
environmentally responsible and sustainable printing
practices, UC Press has printed this book on Rolland
Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that
is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free,
and manufactured with renewable biogas energy.
It is acid-free and EcoLogo certified.
To Nancy Clemente
Dear friend and the best and most helpfuleditor I have known
CONTENTS
3. Fleeing and Staying under Cover
5. Bird Dropping Mimicry and Other Disguises
8. Defensive Weapons and Warning Signals
9. The Predators' Countermeasures
PROLOGUE
All animals must eat. If they don't, they cannot fulfill the three basic imperatives of life: to grow and to survive long enough to reproduce. But who eats whom, and why? Except for climatic factors such as droughts or freezing temperatures, predators are probably the most pervasive and dangerous threat to the survival of most animals. Because all organisms require food, the relationships between the eaten and the eaters are a—perhaps the—central aspect of what goes on in a community of organisms, which, together with their physical environment, constitute an ecosystem.
In almost all land and freshwater ecosystems, insects are the most abundant animal food. Without a doubt, knowing the ways in which insects avoid becoming a meal for an insect-eating predator and the ways in which predators evade their defensive strategies is essential to understanding how ecosystems work. Moreover, these relationships are in themselves fascinating, sometimes bizarre, and always enlightening.
Many, many different kinds of organisms make a living by preying on insects. They include a few plants, but most of them are representatives of virtually all the major animal groups (classes)—except those that live only or mainly in the seas: sponges, jellyfish, starfish, clams, and snails—ranging from spiders and insects to vertebrates such as lizards, birds, and mammals.
Natural selection favors changes (mutations) that in one way or another improve an organism's ability to cope with its environment, to better exploit opportunities and avoid being eaten by a predator.
