Evolution has a funny way of coming through in certain situations, take the Assassin Bug for example. Although it may be called assassin, it isn’t actually that deadly. It feeds on ants and very small insects by injecting them with an enzyme from it’s needle-like snout, then sucks out the juicy innards. Only this bug doesn’t have much else to defend itself with, so what does it do? It carries around it’s dead food on it’s back to confuse and scare off any would-be predators! How fascinating!?
Daily Mail writes:
This bug looks like it’s made a killing carrying a remarkable number of dead bodies on its back to stop it becoming lunch. As this gruesome picture shows this insect has at least 20 ants on its back which according to scientists confuse potential predators like jumping spiders.
The aptly named assassin bug uses the dead bodies, as a defence mechanism to fend off enemies.
Photographer Hock Ping Guek, from Malaysia, decided to document the amazing camouflage strategy using macro photography. He said: ‘These assassin bugs are quite small, less than 1 cm, so the camera I used really comes in handy here as it allows me to go beyond the 1:1 maximum limit of the usual macro lenses without the need for any add-on tubes.
‘The behaviour is indeed absolutely fascinating. They prey on ants, inject enzyme into the ant preys and suck the ants dry, then put the dead bodies on their back for camouflage, most likely as a form of defence against other predator like jumping spiders.
‘I spent about 30 minutes photographing these assassin bugs every time I find one. I try to shoot as many shots as I could from many different angles, and pick only a few that I like best in terms of angle, moment, composition etc.’
Assassin bugs kill in a rather gruesome way by injecting them with an enzyme and then sucking out their insides. Despite their fearsome reputation the insects are actually quite small measuring just 1cm in length.
Read more at dailymail.co.uk