Amphibian biography

Opening in full size the worms are very similar to rainworms, but these are not worms at all, these are legless amphibians, which means that their closest relatives are toads, frogs, salamanders and tritons. Worms live in tropics and subtropics, rummaging in the soil and forest litter; Like all amphibians, they love to make it wet. They are not studied very well, but quite a lot of curious is known about their reproduction.

Among the worms there are those that lay the eggs - that is, the eggs, and there are those that bear the formed eggs in themselves, waiting for the cubs to hatch - that is, the egg -grown. At the same time, the cubs hatched from the eggs in the body of the mother eat something that looks like milk. In a recent article in Science, the employees of the Institute Butantan write that the “milk” feed offspring and those worms whose offspring are withdrawn from the layered eggs.

In any case, this happens in the annular siphonops annulatus worm that, by the way, can grow up to 40 cm. They also paid attention to it: her cubs remain for a while with the mother, overeating her upper layers of the skin. But they eat maternal skin about once a week, and it would be strange to assume that this is enough for small worms. Researchers found sixteen nests, in which there were worms with offspring, and shot them on camera - in total, more than a watch of the video turned out.

It turned out that the children-workers from time to time drink a liquid that is released from the mother's cloak. In fact, such behavior of ringed worms was observed before. But now, firstly, it was possible to show that this is ordinary behavior, and not something exceptional, and secondly, that the liquid from cloaca is rich in fat and carbohydrates-that is, it nourishes offspring, like milk milk.

The worms produce their “milk” with special glands in the phallopium pipes, and it turns out three times fatter than the cow. Thirdly, the cubs squeak and click, and also poke their heads into the mother's cloak, asking for “milk”. At the same time, they do not neglect the skin, when it becomes once again possible to pinch off. In general, although feeding offspring with milk is considered a characteristic feature of mammals, or animals, there are other animals to which evolution has given similar ability.

In addition to worms, you can remember birds. Flamingo, some pigeons, penguins and parrots also feed chicks with a kind of milk: the so-called goiter milk of birds is a curd of a secret that is distinguished by the epithelium of the goiter and a little animal similar to milk. And besides the bird and worm “milk” there is a spider: a few years ago we wrote that in spiders-sloping spiders newborn, newly-playing cubs, drink a certain liquid, which is released through the sexual channels of the females; Without this fluid, the spiders have to very badly.

The spider “milk” contains four times more proteins, fats and carbohydrates than in the cow, and, most likely, the “milk” of slurry spiders is simply liquefied eggs that went to feed.