"Whether it's serious or not is not for me to decide. It has to be done through scientific experiments," said Xiang Yang.
In the ocean, many beautiful and attractive marine creatures actually carry deadly dangers, which can lead to tragedy if you are not careful.
After listening to this, Fang Youqun lowered his head and apologized: "Brother Yang, I know I was wrong."
Xiang Yang waved his hand, "I won't say anything to you this time, I hope there won't be a next time."
After teaching Fang Youqun a lesson, Xiang Yang looked into the water tank again.
Inside the water tank, the Poseidon beetle seemed to be able to survive without seawater.
When Xiang Yang looked at it, it was relying on the four leaf-like wings on both sides of its body to push hard against the wall of the water tank. At the same time, its hard body, which was a bit like a cicada pupa, was arching up and down.
"It's crawling." Fang Youqun said.
"It wanted to climb out of the water tank," Xiang Yang added.
"Can the Poseidon slug crawl?" Fang Youqun asked.
Xiang Yang recalled carefully, then nodded and said, "It can crawl. The Sea God Slug can rely on the leaves on both sides of it and the extension and contraction of its body to crawl quickly on the seabed."
The Atlantic sea god slug is very active and likes to dangle just below the surface.
At this time, Xia Pengjie suddenly asked in a low voice: "Captain, look at the white foam where it crawled, don't they look like the vacuoles of a snail?"
Xiang Yang nodded, "Yes, they are somewhat similar, but the functions should be completely different."
The mucus on the ground where the snail crawls is secreted from the snail's abdominal foot.
Snails live on land and require a very humid environment.
If it doesn't rain, snails will hide in the shadow of rocks or in the crevices of tree stumps all day and only come out at night.
This is because the snail's body is very soft and it secretes mucus to keep its ventral feet moist and avoid damage while crawling.
Therefore, after a snail crawls across walls, leaves, etc., it always leaves a clear trail, which is formed by the mucus secreted by the foot gland.
As for the mucus left by the Poseidon beetle where it crawled, Xiang Yang believed that it was either venom used to defend against enemies or the predatory saliva of the Poseidon slug.
In the ocean, many coelenterates have special cells called stinging cells.
Stinging cells are like spring-loaded harpoons that can sting the enemy instantly when in danger.
However, Poseidon slugs don't care about these stinging cells at all, and even eat them as a delicacy.
The reason is that the Poseidon slug can secrete a large amount of predatory saliva to wrap around the stinging cells, making it impossible for the stinging cells to hurt it at all.
"Whether it's predatory saliva or venom, this Poseidon beetle is very dangerous anyway. It's not so easy to mess with." Xiang Yang concluded.
Fang Youqun was immediately puzzled when he heard this, "Brother Yang, if you said that venom is dangerous, then it makes sense, but what do you mean by predator saliva is dangerous?"
Xiang Yang looked at the curious people around him and answered: "The Poseidon slug can transfer and store those untouched stinging cells at the ends of its tentacles. Each tentacle end can store a large number of stinging cells. These stinging cells are the weapons of the Poseidon slug."
"Don't underestimate the stinging cells. Poseidon slugs rely on these tiny stinging cells to defend themselves against enemies."
In the ocean, many predators are afraid of stinging cells.
The brightly colored, soft-bodied sea urchin is active, and because of its ability to store stinging cells, few predators set their sights on it.
If any fish dares to prey on the Poseidon slug, the Poseidon slug will instantly inject all of its stored stinging cells into the enemy's body.
This is also the main reason why Xiang Yang didn't care to catch the Poseidon Beetle even though he was wearing gloves.
The toxins in the stinging cells are enough to cause shock or even death in humans.
When Fang Youqun learned about the horror of stinging cells, he was so scared that he immediately took several steps back.
Xiang Yang was speechless when he saw this: "Why are you stepping back?"
Fang Youqun said: "I'm afraid I'll be pricked by the stinging cells."
Xiang Yang rolled his eyes. "Do you think it's a bee? As long as you don't touch it with your hands, its stinging cells will never hurt you."
Stinging cells are a type of predatory, attacking and defensive cells that are possessed by cnidarians but are not unique to them.
To put it simply, it is actually a specialized epithelial muscle cell with the nucleus located at the base and a needle extending out of the body surface at the top. As long as you don't touch it, you won't be hurt.
After experiments, scientists discovered that there is a stinging sac inside the stinging cell, with a cover at the top and thin, coiled stinging threads inside.
When the stinger or nematocyst is stimulated, the nematocyst is expelled from the nematocyst and the stinging threads are also turned outward from the nematocyst to form stinging threads of different lengths, which are used for predation and defense.
Some biologists have proved through experiments that the discharge mechanism of nematocysts is caused by the combined action of mechanical and chemical stimulation, and the use of any one of the stimulations alone does not cause discharge.
External stimuli act on the stinging cells, causing the nematocysts to absorb water from the surrounding cytoplasm, changing the permeability of the cyst wall. The stinging cells then contract, increasing the pressure inside the nematocysts, and the stinging threads break through the cover and turn outside, causing discharge.
Therefore, the discharge of stinging cells is due to external stimuli acting directly on the nematocysts, rather than through nerve cells.
The conduction of nerves may only play a regulatory role in the discharge of a large number of thorny cells.
The tips of the discharged nematocysts will continuously ooze out liquid, which has an anesthetic and toxic effect on the prey.
Someone analyzed a large amount of nematocyst venom collected from the gastric threads in the digestive tract of a sea anemone and found that it contained four protein components.
The four protein components were then used to conduct toxicity tests on fiddler crabs and shrimps.
As a result, scientists found that some protein components in stinging cells are toxic, some proteins have the ability to destroy cell membranes and nerve cords to transmit action potentials, and some protein components cause severe spasms in experimental animals.
This suggests that it is caused by the action of the nervous system.
When stimulated, the stinging threads and venom in the nematocysts will be ejected immediately, and this process is irreversible.
And like bees, each nematocyst can only be used once, and after use, the stinging cells will quickly degenerate.
Some hydras also have stinging cells on their bodies.
Those stinging cells are generally distributed in the epidermis of hydrozoans, especially in the mouth area, tentacles and other parts.
Fang Youqun turned his gaze to Xiang Yang's right hand and blinked a few times. "Brother Yang, I have something I don't know whether I should say it or not."
"Go ahead." Xiang Yang said.
"Brother Yang, I think you used this glove to catch this sea god beetle before. Why don't you change this glove first? I feel numb at the bottom of my heart when I see your glove now, as if ten thousand stinging cells are piercing me."