The hot spray from a large Bombardier Beetle is also painful to humans. Waldbauer, in his The Handy Bug Answer Book, claims that drop for drop, the chemical is more potent than skunk spray, and says that a toad that is sprayed in the mouth gags, sticks out its tongue and rubs it against the ground. When threatened, the Bombardier beetle presumably squeezes some HQ’s and HP into the OE in the reactor chamber, where the chemicals mix and produce a thermodynamic reaction – smoke, mirrors, liquid and heat – that can be precisely aimed. Both inorganic and organic chemistry were a mystery to the BugLady, but not, apparently, to the Bombardier beetle. The larger chamber contains hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide (HQs and HP), and the smaller or reactor chamber holds oxidative enzymes (OE). The very flexible trailing end of its abdomen houses, along with the usual insect paraphernalia, two large glands (one left, one right), each with its own “exhaust pipe.” Each gland is divided into two sequential chambers separated by a valve. This volatile load is not carried around “as is”, it is assembled on demand. According to Eaton and Kaufman in their Field Guide to Insects of North America, the Bombardier beetle can squirt nasty stuff, which discourages some predators and can stain people’s skin, in rapid-fire bursts or pulses (it’s the only insect known to have a pulse-jet) accompanied (like fireworks) by an audible “pop” and a visual “puff.” As a bonus the stuff has a temperature of 100 degrees! Centigrade! A pretty good trick for a cold-blooded critter. The Brachinus Bombardier beetle, not pictured here, is a chemical marvel. So, beetles have developed predator deterrents, and “ most often these defenses take the form of dischargeable glands, present in the abdomen, and opening on or near the abdominal tip.” Such glands are a standard feature in a number of beetle families, including the Carabidae, Dytiscidae, and Gyrinidae The late Thomas Eisner, entomologist extraordinaire, explained that while elytra help beetles by protecting the flying wings from damage, they potentially put beetles in harm’s way because the flying wings are not “flight-ready” – in order to fly, the beetle must first unfold the membranous hind set of wings from under the rigid front set, and that takes time. Many of the more talented members of the family are able to produce noxious chemicals to spray on their enemies. Their elytra (the two hardened front wings that provide protection for the flying wings folded beneath) are often shiny and pitted or grooved. Bombardier beetles are sometimes gregarious and may congregate with others in hollow logs or other dark, damp places.Both are in the Ground beetle family (Carabidae), a group of (mostly) dark-colored, speedy, long-lived, nocturnal carnivores. Eventually the pupa molts and a new adult bombardier beetle emerges. With the ultimate larval molt emerges the pupa, a non-feeding developmental stage. From the egg hatches a tiny larva that feeds feeds on hapless animals it encounters as it molts and grows. Ground beetles lay eggs in small underground tunnels or cracks of rotting wood or even in decomposing remains of other organisms. Some bombardier beetles can survive for several years under ideal conditions. Ground beetles tend to live for several weeks during which they mate and pass on their genes. It takes about 5 days for a false bombardier beetle to replace the formic acid released in one burst. False bombardier beetles, genus Galerita, use formic acid and acetic acid for defense. Bombardier beetles can aim the extremely irritating expulsion with some degree of accuracy at their assailants and can repeat these discharges up to twenty times.
#Bombardier beetle free
Free oxygen is released explosively that heats and propels by products of the hydroquinones with an audible pop (hence the name bombardier beetles). When the beetles are perturbed, they are able to add hydrogen peroxide to the hydroquinones. They secrete a mixture of hydroquinones from a glandular sac at the rear of the abdomen. Some ground beetles such as Brachinus fumans and others in the genus Brachinus and related genera use hydroquinones for defense. They are ground beetles, many with wing covers over the abdomen that are usually dark blue. Most of the bombardier beetles have orange heads, thoraces, and legs. Description and Biology Skip to Description and Biology
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