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Additionally, these insects tend to be relatively large, long-lived, active, and frequently aggregate. [2] Indeed, longer-lived insects are more likely to be chemically defended than short lived ones, as longevity increases apparency. [9] Throughout the arthropod and insect realm, however, chemical defenses are quite unevenly distributed.
The Anthia (oogpister beetle) will fire formic acid at attackers, probably extracting the formic acid from the ants that it eats. The devil-rider stick insects (Anisomorpha) can fire terpenes from glands on the metathorax that can cause an intense burning irritation of the eyes and mouth of potential predators. Wood ants will spray acid at ...
Pyrrolizidine alkaloid sequestration by insects is a strategy to facilitate defense and mating. Various species of insects have been known to use molecular compounds from plants for their own defense and even as their pheromones or precursors to their pheromones.
The damage caused can be fatal to attacking insects. Some bombardier beetles can direct the spray in a wide range of directions. The beetle's unusual defense mechanism has been claimed by some creationists as something that could not have evolved, although this is refuted by evolutionary biologists.
Insects accordingly employ multiple defensive strategies, including camouflage, mimicry, toxicity and active defense. [138] Many insects rely on camouflage to avoid being noticed by their predators or prey. [139] It is common among leaf beetles and weevils that feed on wood or vegetation. [138] Stick insects mimic the forms of sticks and leaves ...
Some insects explode altruistically, at the expense of the individual in defense of its colony; the process is called autothysis. Several species of ants, such as Camponotus saundersi in southeast Asia, can explode at will to protect their nests from intruders. [12] [13] C. saundersi, a species of carpenter ant, can self-destruct by autothysis ...
The fontanellar gun is a termite defense mechanism in the form of a horn-like frontal projection (nasus) on the head of the soldier caste which is capable of expelling chemical weaponry at a distance, a trait exclusive to the subfamily Nasutitermitinae. It is primarily used to ward off predators such as ants. [1] [2] [3]
A worker can explode suicidally and aggressively as an ultimate act of defense, an ability it has in common with several other species in this genus and a few other insects. [1] The ant has an enormously enlarged mandibular gland, many times the size of other ants, which produces adhesive secretions for defense. [2]