Blister beetle
| Blister beetles | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Hycleus lugens | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Superfamily: | Tenebrionoidea |
| Family: |
Meloidae Gyllenhal, 1810 |
| Subfamilies | |
Eleticinae
Meloinae
Nemognathinae
Tetraonycinae
Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their toxicity to would-be predators.
Cantharidin, a poisonous chemical that causes blistering of the skin, is used medically to remove warts and is collected for this purpose from species of the genera Mylabris and Lytta, especially Lytta vesicatoria, better known as "Spanish fly".
Blister beetles are hypermetamorphic, going through several larval stages, the first of which is typically a mobile triungulin. The larvae are insectivorous, mainly attacking bees, though a few feed on grasshopper eggs; while sometimes considered parasitoids, in general, the meloid larva apparently consumes the immature host along with its provisions, and can often survive on the provisions alone, thus it is not an obligatory parasitoid, but rather a facultative parasitoid, or simply predatory. The adults sometimes feed on flowers and leaves of plants of such diverse families as the Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Solanaceae.(citation needed)
Cantharidin is the principal irritant in "Spanish fly", a folk medicine prepared from dried beetles in the Meloidae family.
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Wikipedia