Even a car can’t kill this beetle. Here’s why

Even a car can’t kill this beetle. Here’s why

3 years ago
Anonymous $RGO3jP_V_c

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/even-car-can-t-kill-beetle-here-s-why

When entomologists first told Jesus Rivera that a nondescript black beetle could survive being run over by a car, he was skeptical. Then he tried it, and the insect walked away unscathed (as you can see for yourself in the video below). Now, this newly minted Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine, has discovered the secret to this bug’s success.

The diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) lives under the bark of oak and other trees in the western United States, feasting on fungi growing there. Like other beetles, it plays dead when in danger. But though this tiny bug isn’t much bigger than a grain of rice, it can withstand crushing forces equivalent to 39,000 times its body weight, the researchers discovered. That’s about four times more than the strongest humans exert when squeezing the beetle between the thumb and forefinger.