A beetle can survive been eaten by a frog
By crawling out of the frog's butthole.
Generally, we know when something gets eaten, that’s the end of it. The unlucky prey goes into the abyss of the digestive stomach and comes out a few hours later a brown, gooey mess.
But not for this beetle. Yes, it does get eaten by a frog. And yes, it does come out of the frog’s butt. But the key difference is that the beetle actively crawls out of the frog’s anus, coming out unscathed and unharmed and most importantly, still alive.
Regimbartia attenuata, or commonly known as the Japanese water scavenger beetle, is widely distributed across Asia and Australia. Being aquatic insects, the Japanese water scavenger beetle forms an important diet of many frog species.
So that’s probably why these beetles evolved an interesting mechanism to survive being eaten.
This is how it works. First, the beetle is snapped up by a frog for a quick snack. A few hours later, the beetle wiggles it’s out of the frog’s butt then makes its escape.
The reasons they’re able to survive the frog’s digestive juices, is because of their exoskeleton - it protects the beetle from being digested. The beetles also carry oxygen under their exoskeleton, allowing them to breathe underwater, or in the digestive juices.
The beetles are so successful, that over 90% of beetles being eaten are able to escape from the frog’s anus. And it pays to be quick. The quicker they can get out and spend less time in the deadly environment of the frog’s digestive juices, the higher the beetle’s survival rate It can take the beetles an average of 6 hours to make their daring escape, and some, even as quick as six minutes.
So, while it’s shitty that the beetles have to crawl through the frog’s butthole, it’s worth it for a second chance at life.