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Saturday, October 8, 2022

Released my L. zonatus today

Finally found a tree with enough fruits to feed them for the rest of their lives! Good riddance.

By the way, make sure to always keep coreids in groups. Research papers note L. zonatus and numerous other Coreidae dying prematurely after being put in solitary confinement; the reason for this probably has something to do with collective salivation (according to a research book on archive.org I am too depressed to hunt down the link for). I assume that, if true, it works on this logic:

1. Single specimens cannot produce enough saliva to engage in proper extraoral digestion.

2. More individuals = more saliva = efficienter digestion.

3. If the host plant produces defensive chemicals, a sufficiently large cluster of individuals can neutralize the chems through sheer numbers.

I have occasionally observed my zonatus appearing to steal conspecifics' injected saliva, suggesting that when living conditions are suboptimal they may kleptoparasitize each other instead of salivating cooperatively. It's a shame I can't afford the expensive tools needed to actually investigate this in any detail.



Also I should probably tell you that the nymphs (and probably also adults) vibrate inaudibly now and then. Not sure what function it serves, but they tend to do it when another individual is about to walk into them. It's tempting to conclude that it's some sort of "respect my personal space" signal, but they do not vibrate consistently when walked into (and the recipients of the signal don't seem to react to it, except possibly by freezing) so I'll refrain from drawing conclusions.

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