The Weird Way Aphids Reproduce

[@AdamYJ]

Okay, so now do how weird a common aphid predator, the ladybug, is. I mean, they’re defense mechanism is shooting acidic blood out of their knees!

[@darcieclements4880]

I'm not sure that they're acidic, they taste a lot more gross in the basic kind of way. Do not ask me how I know, it would not intentional it is never intentional when that happens! They are super gross.... Yeah just double checked its alkaloid not acid. Did taste buds do not lie!

[@ajchapeliere]

They also have some fun genetic stuff with their patterning!

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

@@darcieclements4880 "Do not ask me how I know" - nah, so how DO you know? 😋

[@FlyingDwarfman]

@@darcieclements4880 As someone who's home got a massive ladybug infestation one year, I'm reasonably sure how you know. That was not a particularly fun summer of my childhood.

[@infinidominion]

To them, it's normal

[@victornoname7269]

My nomination for common animal that's way weirder than people think is shrews. Specifically the Eurasian shrew since it manages to have all the weird traits that make shrews so bizarre in one species. Some crazy traits about Eurasian shrews in escalating order of weirdness: - They're insanely voracious predators. They need to consume 200% to 300% percent of their body weight in food every day! They have will starve if they don't eat every few hours. They're like the tiny murder machine version of hummingbirds. - They have red teeth due to having iron in them! - They use echolocation and are one of the few terrestrial mammals do so! - They're venomous! - They can't hibernate due to being too small to store enough fat to keep up with their crazy metabolism. To survive their skull, brain, and other organs shrink in size during the winter! Their brains gets up to 30% smaller! - Weirdest of all, different populations of Eurasian shrews have different numbers of chromosomes! Some of the different "chromosomal races" still interbreed with each other too.

[@VanBurenOfficial]

My cat is named Schrewbert and he's available to make a vid on

[@unclescar5616]

Just... Wow!!! 😮

[@Cleeon]

Wow, they're really an unique Biomachine, why they need to evolve like that?

[@catdogmousecheese]

Another fun fact: Some women pay doctors to inject shrew venom into their faces. The venom paralyzes the skin and helps hide wrinkles.

[@anthonytonythegeek5561]

I keep forgetting they’re one of the only mammals that are venomous, besides the Loris and the platypus

[@twincast2005]

I'm always torn between finding them cute and getting pissed at them ruining leaves/petals. And this whole reproductive cycle feels familiar, but I had forgotten about it. Hella weird for real.

[@anyascelticcreations]

If you'd had to trim my parents' hedge, and looked at your arms only to find them covered in aphids, you probably wouldn't think they were cute anymore. 😂 Wow. That was nearing 40 years ago and I still feel traumatized. Lol 😅

[@porakiyadraekojin3390]

Black Dragon fish are weird, especially the babies. Their eyes are on this ling stalks and their...anuses.......trail behind their tail fin

[@CritterKeeper01]

"Near as I can tell, they're born pregnant, which appears to be a great time-saver!" -Dr. Leonard McCoy, "The Trouble With Tribbles"

[@Earthstar_Review]

This was my first thought.

[@anthonytonythegeek5561]

One animal I’d wanna see is the Hiekegami, also known as the samurai crab, the reason they exist is because of people selectively catching crabs that didn’t have a face on their carapace (in summary: crabs with faces on their backs are believed to be fallen samurai warriors). So over the years they literally gained a face on their back because people went “ewww it has a face on it”.

[@jonmiller6787]

If we're talking about commonly known animals that are way weirder than people realize, may I point you all to the Sperm Whale. They have sonic beam attacks, subsist on the flesh of krakens, sleep vertically underwater in groups like alien monoliths, have flammable oil lubricating their skulls- like it's almost weird that there isn't already a bizarre beasts episode on these Eldritch Beasts

[@divinekitty1831]

Damn you're right, and now I REALLY hope they make and episode about them. Whales in general are cool, but Sperm whales have a lot going for them even discounting their hilarious names.

[@dracodracarys2339]

The sperm whale, the wild ass and the great tit. Three fascinating animals ruined by questionable names.

[@Crembaw]

There is it’s called ‘Dishonored’.

[@YunxiaoChu]

Lol sperm

[@dovebair]

Ok! The surprise ugly laugh of pure delight I made at “pea aphids only have hot girl summers” was a rare treat. Thank you as always for the neato info, and in this case specifically, for making me laugh so hard my body *literally* was not ready!

[@paulkinzer7661]

I have known the fact, 'aphids are born pregnant', since before I can remember (probably passed to me by one of my three older brothers; all of us soaked up cool facts as kids). I probably learned about ants 'farming' them for sugar around the same time. But all the other stuff you explained here was entirely new to me. I'm glad I don't have a garden I work hard in, so I can just look at aphids and think, 'Cute little buggers; eat away!'

[@chrisbarry9345]

I was so confused by why so many ants were on one of my friend's plants until I looked closer and realized they were farming aphids. So wild to finally see it in person

[@dianafossi1295]

So glad to see a new video from you Hank!

[@solsoman102]

who?

[@dankxen0n804]

bot, ignore and report

[@rosariccardo3529]

They're like tribbles!

[@anyascelticcreations]

Lol 👍 🖖

[@OriginalCreatorSama]

I got shown that episode as a kid and just thought "it would be never ending! babies in babies in babies!" D; and it turns out the concept of "born pregnant" really DOES result in a matryoshka from hell! D;

[@rosariccardo3529]

@@OriginalCreatorSama LOL!

[@Ancusohm]

Oh, wow. Real life tribbles!

[@anyascelticcreations]

🖖 😊

[@finalmage6]

Not deterred. I maintain that you should cover flying squirrels. They're more bizarre than people give them credit 😉

[@anyascelticcreations]

I'd watch. 🙋‍♀️

[@hl-404]

Had one jump on me as a child. Still horrified and I'm in my 30s 😅

[@SAmaryllis]

I laughed at the credit: Hank Green photo 😂 stay strong, cherry tree!

[@Kazzzack]

I feel like it would be neat to point out that pea aphids live only around 30 days (according to a quick google), so they go through a bunch of generations in a year using these different strategies depending on when in the year they live

[@nima9340]

Ok, but I wanna know how the genetics behind that works. Is it like with ants, where only "half" a genome is needed to make a male?

[@crazyboutferrets]

Zygotes are created directly from mother tissue I guess

[@turkoositerapsidi]

The haploid sex determination for males being haploid is true for all hymenopterans, not just ants. And NO aphids are not haplodiploid, their sex determination is X0 instead. Males have one less sex chromosome, but their autosomes are diploid like females.

[@ariannasv22]

Genes can be passed on but be inactive, or be turned on or off like halfway through an organisms life, I forget the term for it. Oncogenes I think? Very whacky but cool stuff, and I'm guessing something similar applies to aphids

[@scoutbane1651]

I hope you'll do a video on the black olm/proteus. Look them up! They look kinda like longer black axolotls, and are endemic only to a tiny portion of a tiny country, Slovenia.

[@gegenbauer]

The only reason this video didn’t make me hate aphids any more than I already do is because I’m already saturated with aphid hate and there’s simply no way to hate them more.

[@denny4471]

My feelings exactly.

[@juliankirby9880]

Let me help you with that. Because of cannabis agriculture becoming legal. The trading and selling of rooted cuttings being the main reason why, Rice Root Aphids are becoming endemic to Every states agriculture. They are incredibly difficult to treat and almost impossible to eradicate as they also, are born pregnant. They live in the soil. They eat from the roots. They have both winged and non winged life stages. They also, are Ben pregnant.

[@valkeakirahvi]

Aphids are the only animal I hate :D I can't keep the little parthenogenetic f*rs away from my chillies if even one is left alive

[@gabrielzirkle2436]

Ah aphids, the bane of every gardener’s existence

[@sainjawoof3506]

Fantastic pin💚 Insects never cease to amaze me!

[@vincelamb4063]

Since other people have mentioned tribbles, I'm going with plan B. Did you know there is a song that mentions parthenogenesis? It's "Nemesis" by Shriekback. It also mentions prehistoric animals. Since I've studied both, it's my theme song.

[@deathsnitemaresinfullust2269]

Here in California I see Aphids on Rose plants most often but I also see a different dark colored type on the fresh growing bits of Ivy growing around the borders of our yard. They show up SO quick and it's like they come outta nowhere. 😆👍

[@starberst79]

That’s a great design for the pin!

[@kyliegangwish17]

Pea Aphid: Hot girl summer only 😎

[@AnimeSunglasses]

"Near as I can tell, Jim..."

[@diebesgrab]

“Why didn’t anybody tell me that pea aphids were keeping a secret.” We thought you knew! Sorry, Hank. Also nice to see you with hair again!

[@DJFracus]

He definitely knew since he has covered this on SciShow before. Probably just a line that was written for him.

[@anyascelticcreations]

I love this show. KZbin! Send me more notifications! I clicked the bell a long time ago! Anyway, I love this show. ❤

[@blobbertmcblob4888]

Aphid 1: Your baby is fat! Aphid 2: Hey! They baby's not fat! She's pregnant!

[@timber72]

Looking good, Hank! Hope you're doing better.

[@christopherwarner6896]

One of the great Bizarre Beasts! Excellent pea aphid coverage!

[@franciscorosa1498]

Huh cool pin with that Russian doll look

[@victoriaeads6126]

It's so complex! The evolutionary pressures leading to this must have been quite varied.

[@matthewpitre8159]

Looking good man looking healthy glad you're doing well

[@lzrdwzrd999]

Aphid predators are super interesting too. Like parasitic wasps that drill into the back of aphids and lay their eggs inside, only to eat their way out 👀

[@bea-ti9rg]

my pitch for the hat is beaver beetles they are one of the only parasitic beetles and they are flightless witch is very weird for a beetle their life cycle is quite weird to very fun critters

[@KxNOxUTA]

My skin is crawling a bit but other than that, then you very much for this fascinating education. I've always wondered about some having wings and others not.

[@darcieclements4880]

My biggest surprise here is that you guys haven't reported on this before. I like how they're just little Russian nesting dolls. There's definitely a species that well I'm sure you cover it in the video so I'm just going to watch this for funsies and maybe I shouldn't comment before I actually watch but then again comments increase the algorithms happiness.

[@darcieclements4880]

Edit: more, dig deeper. Dig deeper into the depths that is aphid and relatives! The pea aphid is a great starting point because there's a lot of information on it, but there are some out there that are suspected to be even weirder! I cannot remember but there's a species that is born with the embryos of the next generation which also have embryos of the generation after that in them. Can't remember which one of the aphids it was, this is really dumb but all I remember is that one of the colors they come in is pink. And then there's the ones that spontaneously produce versions that are so morphically different from the rest of the colony that when we see them we don't even realize what species they are initially because they're so rare that they didn't get documented. I encountered one of those and I still don't know what kind of aphid it was because I have never been able to find anything in the literature that matched this little freak. Unfortunately I tripped while carrying it and lost it so I couldn't propagate it to see what it was😢 it had two very long balancing projections off on either side fuzz not unlike a wooly apple aphid except definitely not the same as what you see in a wooly apple aphid, and the ability to just sort of hover suspended in mid-air. Definitely an aphid, never seen anything like it before or since. I found absolutely nothing on aphids that have those long balancing strands. I even ended up looking in other insect groups just in case it looked like an aphid and wasn't, nothing. Imagine a perfectly symmetrical little puff that resembles a seed with two long strands about 4 in long hanging off to other side that just hovers in space. It's like a freaking fairy.

[@Romanticoutlaw]

ah, yes, the inspiration for my next scifi sapient alien species

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

That first animal was a Pallas Cat, the OG grumpy cat.

[@empmachine]

Every year when the ivy grows I look forward to Aphids. Watching ants use them like crops-on-a-farm is outright fascinating!!! Next time you see specs on ivy, take a closer look and see if there's ants farming goo. Hank, you are amazing! Thanks again!

[@lilalizzard]

This sounds super interesting but it was explained a little too fast for me! I didn’t understand everything at the end. I feel like parthenogenesis could have been explained longer and I didn’t understand why and how there suddenly were male pea aphids.

[@davidg5898]

I'm all about the "boring" animals. They're only boring because they live where we live and we see them all the time. To people in different parts of the world, the animals we consider boring are exotic and vice versa.

[@StonedtotheBones13]

Fireflies and cicadas come to mind. Weird to think some ppl don't have bugs with beep beep lights in their butts, or trees that don't scream in Summer 😂

[@davidg5898]

@@StonedtotheBones13Don't forget opossums. The only marsupials native to the Americas! They have more teeth than most mammals! They have a lower body temperature than most mammals! (Making them mostly immune to rabies.) They eat stuff that you don't want in your backyard! (Rodents, snakes, insects/grubs that would damage plants/gardens, even small carrion.) They play dead, and can expel a poo/rotten smelling liquid, as a defense tactic! Weird. They have 13 nipples. That's an odd number!

[@WondersofHimalayas]

Awesome information 👏 👌 👍

[@thehellezell]

looking good hank!

[@Vulcanfire01]

How about an episode about springtails/Collembola. A globular springtail pin would look great. Wonderful little detritivores. They are extremely common, but most people never notice them.

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

Aphids. Because tribbles are only fictional.

[@nazzkid23]

omg greer is one of my fav artists!! gotta get that calendar!

[@verdatum]

I don't know how I didn't know about this channel... I confess, I no longer watch every edutainment vid DFTBA puts out, but I watch quite a lot. But we're 54 vids in and The Algorithm (Blessings and Peace be upon it) is only now pointing out that Hank has yet another project. Wild.

[@adde9506]

They're born pregnant? TRIBBLES ARE PLAUSIBLE!!!

[@Zenthanol]

Integrated Pest Management Specialist here: Lacewing larvae are bizarre aphid killers, often called "aphid lions"!

[@darrinwebber4077]

Ahah! Now I know where the idea for the "born.pregnant " Tribbles (Star Trek... TOS) came from.

[@mxss115]

I had not just an aphid infestation on my habanero plant, but a aphid farm being run by some enterprising ants.

[@melodyszadkowski5256]

Just got my pea aphid pin today. I absolutely love it. It's adorable even if I have to sic my ladybugs/ladybird beetles on them in my spring garden. Thanks again Hank and BB!

[@operarose2616]

0:12 Who’s that Pokémon?

[@duhduhvesta]

Yessss great video watch excited

[@duhduhvesta]

Aphids are gosh darn nuts

[@duhduhvesta]

White dwarf isopods do a similar parathogensis

[@laurentrobitaille2204]

Otter shrews are a weird mammal. I mean, they swim by moving their tail side to side. They also superficially look like otters but are actually more closely related to golden moles, which are not even true moles, and elephants

[@Luizi08]

Hey, maybe I'm not getting something critical here so I would love some help if anyone knows. What happens with males that would be born from the overwinter eggs? Do phemale aphids lay female-only eggs after the last sexual intercourse? Do would-be males hatch later or just die? If all aphids are female in summer, how does the genetic information provided by males at the end of the season get integrated into the next generation of females in spring?

[@pyalot]

How do aphids reproduce? Aphids: yes

[@danvo9701]

3:52, I be feeling like aphids

[@aplaceinthestars3207]

Every single clip of aphids raises my blood pressure with an urge to immediately scrape them off my screen. It's a very visceral plant-mom reaction.

[@bbbenj]

Thanks 👍

[@slimjimnyc270]

Aphids are born pregnant? So are Tribbles from Starting Trek. Cool!

[@CassiusStelar]

Bug fables has a spinoff april fools title that lets you raise aphids.

[@timmcdaniel6193]

“Why didn’t anybody tell me that pea aphids were keeping a secret?” BECAUSE THEN IT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A SECRET. Duh.

[@Tser]

I am so excited for this pin. My invertebrate enamel pin collection *expands*....

[@xarin42]

While I knew this one already, I still like hearing the weird parts of common animals the best ^.^

[@isaacalbrecht3125]

I'd love to see a video on snailfish.

[@CorwinFound]

I needed an infographic to follow that string of if/thens of aphid sexual chaos.

[@flammesdoudoune1011]

I physically smiled preparing myself to watch this episode

[@MicroGuys14]

I’ve been stinked by a ladybug once and the stink was from a smelly liquid it shoots when handled or when in a tight situation

[@Ertin_Site]

Cool bizarre aphids

[@laurachapple6795]

Well, Hank, if somebody had told you then it wouldn't BE a secret anymore, would it?

[@eddiehayes1523]

So, insect tribbles?

[@NoahSpurrier]

That’s very complicated. It’s difficult to keep to whole cycle in your head at once.

[@kmart1396]

okay but the pin design this month is hella dope. Aphids all the way down!

[@360.Tapestry]

hank is looking healthy

[@romanmeneghinister1584]

Cottony cushion scale is very neat, it has androdioecy as a reproductive system, no females, just males and hermaphrodites

[@masatosway4558]

So, they are like tribbles!

[@McStealy]

Ooooooo... Science Statham dropped a new vid! Lemme get comfy!

[@shaider1982]

Funny, I just watched an Eons video on dinosaurs possibly being parthenogenic like some birds and crocs. No need for amphibian DNA like in the original Jurassic Park.

[@meganfitzmaurice5757]

Hey! I suggest winged wasps/ants. Every 3rd generation has wings and each generation born already had the eggs and such of the grandkid generation 🤯

[@kmcsciguy]

Not everything is one way or another in biology - so fascinating

[@masonabbey6353]

Its like a Tribble

[@dukegeche]

Y'all should have guest hosts for this show specifically mndiaye and Lindsay Nikole

[@alecity4877]

you can't say we know nothing of bizarre beasts in our sugestions, cover the Portuguese man o' war, they are very common and incredibly strange (like all siphonophors).

[@UshioKiss]

i hate them for ruining plants and dropping honeydew on my car but theyre very interesting at least

[@LilBrownFrogs]

So the spring females are basically Tribbles!

[@ajc389]

They are literally a "bug" ie an insect with suction mouth parts.

[@BeTeeEl]

I deal with these little bastards in my greenhouse!

[@Sabrowsky]

Dunno man, this doesnt seem half as bizarre as the Peach Wasp

[@Shae_Sandybanks]

Have you ever done a video on wētās? They're pretty cool and weird!

[@ScevenofTwistingNeth]

How do I use this to stop them from destroying my roses in the early spring?

[@Questor-ky2fv]

Aphids ate tribbles!🤣

[@brendakrieger7000]

Fascinating

[@brendanhoffmann8402]

I got two bizarre beasts sticker packs. My PC looks so pretty now with animals all over it!

[@NiffYT]

These made a nest in my brothers hair one time.

[@Blalack77]

There was aphids on the lettuce And I ate every one And after I was done The salsa melted off my tongue

[@Jimmyni-kk4em]

Do one on grain or rice weevils. Cos alot of ppl don't know about them

[@something_strange3086]

Can you do earwigs if you haven't already?

[@r322cgaming]

1:46 kill people?

[@danilodesouza6461]

Bees and fire ants could be good bizarre beasts as well