When I hear an outlandish news story I’ll often find myself wondering if (and how) it could possibly be true. It’s surprising how often they are.
I recently ran across one of the finest examples of the art of public speaking. In 2023, author Ursula Vernon (writing as “T. Kingfisher”), won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for her fantasy novel, Nettle & Bone.
You can — and you should — read her entire acceptance speech on her Patreon. She starts off with gratitude and acknowledgement of those who helped her get there. But then, she does the unexpected and shares the kind of thing my co-workers and I refer to as a “Fun Fact.”
There is a species of water beetle that regularly gets swallowed whole by frogs. And while there’s a lot of things you can do to keep from being eaten, once you’re inside a frog, your options are severely limited. Generally you get digested. But this particular species of beetle said “You know, I bet there’s another way.” And it started walking. In fact, it walked through the frog’s digestive tract and out the back end.
This is 100% true, you can look it up. 19 out of 20 of these beetles will simply walk out of the frog, unharmed. It usually takes them about an hour, although one beetle speed-ran the frog in five minutes, which I’m sure was very exciting for the frog.
The moral of this story, if there is one, is that no matter how dark the situation, there is always a way through. And there’s always a light at the end of the frog.
First off, there is no way that recital could have failed to bring the house down.
And second, this is the kind of thing that when you hear it, you find yourself thinking, “No way! That can’t be true! Can it?”
That was my reaction too, and so dear friends, I did some research.
The water beetle in question appears to be Regimbartia attenuata, aka the “Japanese water scavenger beetle.” And yes, when eaten by frogs, 90% of these beetles do indeed “escape out the other end.”
References:
- Active escape of prey from predator vent via the digestive tract (Current Biology, August 2020)
- Yes, this beetle runs out of a frog’s anus to survive being swallowed alive (arstechnica, October 2023)
- When This Beetle Gets Eaten by a Frog, It Heads for the ‘Back Door’ (Smithsonian magazine, August 2020)
- These Water Beetles Make Their Escape Out of a Frog’s Butt After Being Swallowed (Science Alert, August 2020)
- Regimbartia attenuata (Wikipedia)
(Cover image, photo of a water beetle; by Wikipedia user Darkone – Own work, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5, Original image)