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GRUESOME!!
Spiders have very small mouths. And just like spiders, the insects that are their prey have hard outer bodies. In order to eat their prey, spiders use their strong jaws to puncture the hard outer bodies of insects they have caught. They then throw up special juices from their stomachs into the insect's soft inner body. Within seconds, whatever these juices touch turns into liquid. The spider then sucks the inside of the insect dry and eventually all that is left is the hard insect outer body suit.


Males' songs sexually excite female midwife toads


Males' songs sexually excite female midwife toads
Research now shows that the call of the male Majorcan midwife toad causes female midwife toads to ripen their eggs in anticipation of mating. Research was done on three groups of female Majorcan midwife toads who carried ripening eggs in their ovaries. The first group listened to recordings of male calls, the second heard the call of a different species and the third heard no call at all. After a month, the first group had substantially more ripened eggs ready for ovulation than the toads in the other groups. It is speculated that auditory stimulation caused hormones to be released in the part of the brain that controls reproduction which led to the ripening of the eggs. Male Majorcan toads are limited in their breeding because after they fertilize the eggs they remain celibate for a month to raise the brood while the female toads continue to display their readiness to mate by calling.

The National Post

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