Freaky Beetle Larva Turn on and Devour their Frog Predators

http://www.livescience.com/16232-beetle-larvae-devour-frogs-toads.html

These horribly creepy crawlies have attacked their predators! Their usual killers are frogs and toads but the larvae of several species of ground beetle have turned on the poor amphibians. They have a grisly way of doing so: they attract the frog by waggling their antennae and jiggling their jaws, at which point the toad thinks he’s going in for an easy kill. He closes in slowly and then pounces. But the larva evades capture and launches itself onto the nearest part of the frog or toad's body. He then begins to suck out the amphibian’s fluids and chew and gnaw on its flesh, leaving nothing but a pile of bones.

Researchers say that sometimes the victim manages to swallow the horrible beetle larva, only to vomit it up later. If the larva is unharmed, it will promptly jump onto the exhausted frog and continue its meal. The record is for a larva to survive in its victim’s belly for two hours before it was vomited out and devoured the frog.  If the frog is lucky, the attacking beetle will be in its first stage of development, and when it moults will drop of the toad, leaving a horrid scar. But if the larva is older, the frog is doomed. The beetle not only sucks the body fluids, but starts to chew. (Adult beetles can also ambush amphibians, paralyzing them by severing their spinal cord or a crucial muscle.)

All this is absolutely disgusting, and gives me the shivers just reading about it. But it’s life!