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[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Isn't that also how fugu gets its poison? I think the pufferfish grown on farms where their diet is regulated aren't poisonous.

[-] boydster@sh.itjust.works 8 points 5 days ago

TIL... Thank you, kind stranger, for making me curious enough to look further

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu

Researchers have determined that a fugu's tetrodotoxin comes from eating other animals infested with tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria, to which the fish develops insensitivity over time.[10] Whether tetrodotoxin is sequestered from or produced by symbiotic bacteria is still debated.[11] As such, efforts have been made in research and aquaculture to allow farmers to produce safe fugu. Farmers now produce poison-free fugu by keeping the fish away from the bacteria โ€“ see ยง Aquaculture below.[10]

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 days ago

Would've been funny, if a fish was somehow snacking ants on the regular. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago

yup, another toxin called batrachtoxin, comes from eating specific beetles, by the frogs. once they are fed from a non-beetle diet they arnt poisonous.

if it were something like a cane toad, they dont need other animals to make thier toxins.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 5 days ago

First the thing with crows, and now this... Are we sure ants having figured out how to make computers and are now spreading propaganda online? ๐Ÿค”

[-] courgette@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Then .. how do ants become poisonous?

[-] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 12 points 5 days ago

They eat even tinier frogs.

[-] boo_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 5 days ago

Frogs and ants all the way down

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago

I mean, it's gonna depend on the specific ant species. Some ants don't sting at all. Some ants only have formic acid. Some ants' venom tickles. Some ant venom can kill you.

But to quote Wikipedia for one of the latter, the Jack Jumper ant:

The retractable sting is located in their abdomen, attached to a single venom gland connected by the venom sac, which is where the venom is accumulated. Exocrine glands are known in jack jumpers, which produce the venom compounds later used to inject into their victims.

It then goes on to list all kinds of those compounds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_jumper_ant#Venom

I don't have much deeper knowledge than that, but at that point, it might as well be a mixture of some compounds that they ingest and some that they produce from simpler compounds. At the very least, they would need to ingest appropriate atoms/molecules in some form, like for example nitrogen, which is contained in relatively many of those compounds.

[-] thenextguy@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago
[-] frigidaphelion@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Look around you! Just look around you!

[-] frigidaphelion@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Many species of poison dart frogs derive their toxic compounds from ingesting mites! Even crazier, some molluscs like the Blue Angel sea slug (glaucus atlanticus) can ingest and weaponize the nematocysts from siphonophores like the Portuguese Man O' War. Nature be crazy

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 points 5 days ago

I don't like em puttin chemicals in the ants that turn the friggin frogs poisonous

[-] mayo_cider@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago

Clearly it's not that great of a poison

[-] RedSnt@feddit.dk 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I swear I had just gotten the bugsnax song out of my head. Back to square one.

Kinda bug and kinda snack
Try to catch 'em in your trap
Feed somebody and you'll see
We are whatever we eat

this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
312 points (97.9% liked)

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