Thank you!

Instead, defense against insects seems to be a more important. We tested if a velvet ant could defend itself against a formidable praying mantis. In multiple battles, the praying mantis tried to eat the velvet ant, but the velvet ant always managed to sting and escape. 5/5

But then! Surprise! The peptide was not painful at all to mice! Other peptides, which are much weaker in larvae, caused pain in mice. Although we expected the simplest solution, that the pain-causing mechanism would be the same in mammals and insects, this was not the case. 4/5

We were also able to pinpoint the venom peptide (Do6a) that activates this receptor. Not only is the peptide responsible for the strong activation of pain-sensing neurons, it is also the most abundant peptide in the venom. Now we thought we had it all figured out. 3/5

Like humans, larvae have neurons that respond to painful things. These neurons responded very strongly to velvet ant venom. Using genetic tricks, we identified a receptor that causes this strong activation (it turned out to be one of
@hoosierflyman.bsky.social's favorites, Pickpocket). 2/5