"Predation

T. caespitum has a foul taste when eaten due to a toxin produced by the species. Pavement ants also possess a stinger, and give off a smell of banana oil that aids in deterring potential predators. (Werner and Olson, 1994)" --https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Tetramorium_caespitum/

Your video, Venom Injection: How Ant Stingers Work!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Remember to watch for the stinger at the end. You have to love a movie that is already advertising the sequel in the trailer.

Don't see what she's whining about. Shadflies (Mayflies) don't have mouth parts or stingers in their winged stage. They just fly in a swarm spreading their semen aroun...

... hmm, I guess I'd whine too.

A jelly fish sting feels like a bee sting, except you cant touch the spot you got stung, because if you rub it, it smears the stingers all down your arm or leg or wherever you were stung creating a whole area of stings - And trust me, it's so hard to just stand there and let it sting without grabbing that spot...

Replayed it a bunch of time with freeze frames, jumping on the back leg theory. Doesn't look like it was the stinger.

Also the spider didn't seem very bothered by having a sizeable stinger penetrate it, I would have it expected it to immediately drop off or be severely erratic.

That didn't look like a stinger to me but it's hind leg. I think it was just an optical accident. It would be interesting to find out from the guy videoing what happened to the spider.

Is that really a fly mimicking a bee? That just looks like a bee to me.

It seems the mantis is smart enough to keep the potential stinger away from itself while munching away.

What I mean Chingy is that the nose-up take-off is from fear of enemy missile strikes. I'm sure the Taliban have a few Stingers around or whatever these kids use these days.

>> ^Darkhand:

I'm no>> ^ponceleon:
More obviously, that's the wrong side of the stingray...

I'm not a Marine Biologist/Zoologist or any kind of ologist, but I have to agree with ponceleon. I believe the barbs/stinger are in the tail.


@ponceleon

Ok Ok OK! ... I give up. Picky, picky PICKY! ... I'll change the title [and thank you both for the none to subtle advice] =o)

I'm no>> ^ponceleon:

More obviously, that's the wrong side of the stingray...


I'm not a Marine Biologist/Zoologist or any kind of ologist, but I have to agree with ponceleon. I believe the barbs/stinger are in the tail.

Three weeks ago I was riding my motorcycle when I felt an immediate and painful sting in the fleshy underside of the knuckle of my ring finger. Stung REAL bad.

I whipped my hand up off the clutch to see what the pain was to find a fucking bee had flew ass first at 80km/h(50mph) into me. Everything below the bee's knees was hanging out of my hand!!

I quickly came to a stop and yanked the ass off my hand but the stinger was firmly lodged in. Trying to grab the very end of it with no nails at all on my stubby fingers, I simply worked the stinger under my flesh completely I then ended up with this painful 5mm diameter blacky/red blotch under my skin, taunting and laughing my inability to do anything about it. Still healing now.

So thank you nature, for reminding me of the importance of riding with gloves. Fucker.

>> ^cosmovitelli:

@bcglorf
I think it's about where you start from. Without opportunistic pillaging in these countries they wouldn't be a threat at all.
In fact they wouldn't have gunpowder let alone stinger missiles.
Obviously you can't unscramble the pudding and those now involved have to deal with it every day until the empire collapses under the weight (and this is the reason they all have sooner or later, ask the Brits, ottomans, romans etc). Still at least a couple of hundred fat families got a bit fatter - and will be able to buy large stakes in what comes next..
Btw as for Pakistan there was a whistleblower about nuclear secrets leaking who got totally crushed by the US gov a few years back. Pakistan going nuclear was a VERY shady episode that no-one seems to be free to speak about yet. Or maybe it's just slipped into the national ADHD..


I agree with it being where you start from, or with how you see our world. When I look at human history, I don't see any point in it where opportunistic pillaging wasn't the order of the day for whomever was strongest or able to. Perhaps that's why my bar for calling a national action 'good' is different, my view of history leaves me with extremely low expectations.

Pakistan has slipped into the national ADHD on the commoner level. At the decision making level, there has appeared to be a coordinated effort to say very little about Pakistan. I think largely due to the (IMHO correct)belief that Pakistan's current political environment is a giant house of cards being kicked at from all directions. Mark my words, by the end of this year I expect to see Pakistan once again under military rule. Currently it looks like the guise will be court appointed military rule to restore order and enable democratic elections in the near future.

The military leadership has consistently benefited from maintaining a degree of internal conflict and instability between the tribal regions and the government. Using the age old tactic of having a common enemy/opponent to unite the rest of the country behind. Of course, the military doesn't want a long term solution to that conflict, they want the conflict to go on forever as it is in their interest. The downside for us was that the Taliban gained enormous power and influence throughout the tribal regions in all that. They gained enough that they were a bigger challenge than the tribal regions themselves, as unlike the tribes the Taliban could hit back deep into Pakistan proper. Until the events of 9/11, the military(Musharaff at the time) handled this by having a pseudo alliance with the Taliban, basically allowing them to govern the tribal regions of Pakistan. After 9/11, American leadership decided they weren't comfortable with the Taliban by and large controlling large swathes of a nuclear armed state and maintaining an alliance with them of undetermined strength.

Of course, nobody in America is able to talk about it that way, because it would further strengthen the deeply anti-American sentiments in Pakistan already, maybe enough to tip the scales towards siding with the Taliban instead of America.

@bcglorf
I think it's about where you start from. Without opportunistic pillaging in these countries they wouldn't be a threat at all.
In fact they wouldn't have gunpowder let alone stinger missiles.

Obviously you can't unscramble the pudding and those now involved have to deal with it every day until the empire collapses under the weight (and this is the reason they all have sooner or later, ask the Brits, ottomans, romans etc). Still at least a couple of hundred fat families got a bit fatter - and will be able to buy large stakes in what comes next..

Btw as for Pakistan there was a whistleblower about nuclear secrets leaking who got totally crushed by the US gov a few years back. Pakistan going nuclear was a VERY shady episode that no-one seems to be free to speak about yet. Or maybe it's just slipped into the national ADHD..