"The Call of Nature": Bizarre Biosphere Chains
The natural world in which human beings live exists objectively, and it is the basis for our human growth. Including: water, air, mountains, rivers, microorganisms, plants, animals, earth, universe, etc.
There are various living things in nature, including plants, animals, bacteria and fungi. At the same time nature is also a place containing various ecosystems.
The material world is systematic, complex and infinitely diverse.
We know that tigers eat leopards, leopards eat wolves, wolves eat lambs, and lambs eat grass. Various creatures are closely linked to that creature through a series of relationships between eating and being eaten.
For example, the little caterpillars in the vegetable garden are eating leaves happily: The little bird, while secretly tasting the sweet radish, can also treat the small caterpillars as a delicacy.
Everything in nature has a subtle relationship, interdependence and restriction on each other.
Humans and animals both excrete. What happens after the feces is produced, where it goes, and how it disappears. These issues are related to our entire ecosystem.
The book "Nature's Call" will reveal a wonderful micro-ecosystem to us. Through this book, we can see how these coprophagous insects, which we dislike and feel unhappy, are doing. Affecting the entire natural ecosystem.
In cities, feces are easily flushed into sewers, and what awaits them is a complex treatment process. In nature, as soon as animal excrement hits the ground, a large number of coprophagous insects begin a race against time to snatch this precious food. From dung beetles to mosquitoes and flies, excrement has become a place for foraging, nesting, and breeding, forming a wonderful micro-ecosystem.
The author Richard Jones uses British humorous language and more than 200 illustrations to tell us the secrets of feces in a "scientific" and "elegant" way, including the unknown square shape In addition to being used as fertilizer, excrement has many strange uses.
For example, a 10,000-head pig farm in Luliang County uses water flies to treat pig manure and garbage. Converting pig manure into high-value organic fertilizer not only eliminates environmental pollution, but also produces high-value animal protein feed.
In the wild, insect larvae can often be found in animal feces. Among them, there are two major groups of insects that cannot be ignored: Diptera and Coleoptera. Coprophagous Diptera include flies, blow flies, lineflies, broadmouth flies, water flies and hoverfly larvae, all of which are common fecal insects. Coleoptera insects may also inhabit feces. In addition to the familiar dung beetles and dung beetles, ephemeral beetles, flower beetles, dung water turtles and cryptopterans are also common.
Since there are so many coprophagous insects, of course there will be predators in the feces. Yanjia is the most common type of predatory insect, which usually preys on fly maggots or other Coleoptera larvae.
It’s hard to imagine what our world would be like without them.
Although "Nature's Call" is an interesting study of feces, it is also rigorous natural science. Let’s take a look at how these coprophagous insects use feces to transform our world.