When Bugs Crawl Up the Food Chain - The New York Times

But arthropods may turn the tables more often than you think.

He and others who study the topic think that once the initial gasp of shock is past, it’s important to understand what eats what.

Valdez became interested in these role reversals during his doctoral research, after watching a gang of water beetles devour a rare tadpole.

Valdez developed a hunch, borne out by further research, that they were actively hunting vertebrates, too.

Valdez said.

Valdez added to his database were originally described in brief observational notes by scientists who hadn’t set out to study the subject.

There could also be conservation implications, said Dr.

It is difficult to investigate what arthropods eat, said Eric Nordberg, a wildlife ecologist at James Cook University in Queensland who has also studied the topic but was not involved with the new paper.

Even with the new database, however, he didn’t think scientists have seen it all

“Without doubt there are more arthropods out there hunting vertebrates,” he said