Insects and Spiders That Use Tools in Surprising Ways

Defining Tool Use in Animals

• 💡 Tool use is defined as the manipulation of external objects to alter physical properties for a specific benefit, meaning an animal actively uses something separate from its body to achieve a goal.
• ⚠️ Scientists debate the exact definition, with a thin line between tool use and object or material use, such as nest building.

Crickets Amplifying Their Calls

• 🔊 Certain Oecanthus crickets create natural sound baffles by chewing holes in leaves and pressing their wings against the edges to amplify their chirps by 8-12 decibels.
• 🎯 This tool use is primarily adopted by smaller, quieter crickets to attract mates, helping them compete with larger, naturally louder rivals.

Ants Employing Soil and Sponges

• 🐜 Conomyrma ants drop soil particles and pebbles into rival colonies' entrances to disrupt foraging and resources, acting as a form of siege warfare.
• 🧽 Some Myrmicinae ants use bits of leaves, dry mud, or soil as sponges to soak up liquid food, allowing them to transport more sustenance back to the colony than they could carry in their stomachs.
• 🧠 These ants show discernment in material selection and can learn to use new materials, like artificial sponges, after trial and error.

Wasps and Assassin Bugs as Crafty Hunters

• 🔨 Ammophila wasps use pebbles as a tool to compact soil over their burrows, ensuring a more secure nest.
• 🕷️ Assassin bugs slather their bodies in sticky plant resin, which acts as both a trap for prey and a lure, significantly increasing their hunting success rate.
• 🐝 Some assassin bugs further process resin to attract stingless bees, which mistake the scent for an intruder in their own resin traps, leading them to the assassin bug.

Spiders Manipulating Firefly Signals

• 🕸️ An orb-weaving spider (Araneus ventricosus) uses captured male fireflies as tools by manipulating their flashing signals.
• 🎣 The spider alters the firefly's flash pattern to mimic the male-attracting signal, drawing more male fireflies into its web for a larger meal.
• ❓ The exact mechanism by which the spider alters the firefly's signals, possibly through venom or oxygen deprivation, remains a mystery.