Bombardier Beetle: Spewing Caustic Acid Out its Rearend

Bombardier Beetle 1 - YouTube watch to the end for the frog when it gets a taste of ass juice.

Bombardier Beetle 2 - YouTube short video with visual cross-section explaining how it works.

When disturbed, the beetle ejects a noxious chemical spray in a rapid burst of pulses from special glands in its abdomen. The ejection is accompanied with a popping sound.

A bombardier beetle produces and stores two reactant chemical compounds, hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide, in separate reservoirs in the rear tip of its abdomen. When threatened, the beetle contracts muscles that force the two reactants through valved tubes into a mixing chamber containing water and a mixture of catalytic enzymes. When combined, the reactants undergo a violent exothermic chemical reaction, raising the temperature to near the boiling point of water. The corresponding pressure buildup forces the entrance valves from the reactant storage chambers to close, thus protecting the beetle’s internal organs. The boiling, foul-smelling liquid partially becomes a gas (flash evaporation) and is expelled through an outlet valve into the atmosphere with a loud popping sound. The flow of reactants into the reaction chamber and subsequent ejection to the atmosphere occurs cyclically at a rate of about 500 times per second and with the total pulsation period lasting for only a fraction of a second.

The gland openings of some African bombardier beetles can swivel through 270 degrees and thrust between the insect’s legs, so it can be discharged in all sorts of directions with considerable accuracy.

When a bombardier beetle is threatened by a predator or an offensive invader of any kind, at the appropriate point of approach, the bombardier beetle swings its tail end around, and hot, noxious fluid heated to 100 C (212 F) is explosively released from twin combustion tubes right into the face of its enemy. Various quinones are commonly produced by cells in the skin of insects to harden their skin into a cuticle, and, as they taste bad to predators, many insects secrete them to deter predators. Where there are indentations in the cuticle, these vary to form little sacs that store the deterrent quinone. Where predators develop resistance to this chemical, other related chemicals such as hydroquinone develop, and, in many beetles, specialised cells secrete hydroquinone form glands connected by ducts to a reservoir sac, which can be closed off by muscles to stop leakage. While all carabid beetles have this sort of arrangement, in some cases, hydrogen peroxide, which is a common by-product of the metabolism of cells, is mixed in with the hydroquinone, and some of the catalases that exist in most cells makes the process more efficient. The chemical reaction produces heat and pressure, which pushes out the discharge when the insect is attacked, as in the beetle Metrius contractus, which produces a foamy discharge. In other bombardier beetles, the muscles stopping leakage have a flap forming a valve to ensure that the pressure pushes the discharge out, and muscles controlling the outlet have developed nozzles that can direct an explosive reaction to squirt the deterrent chemicals at an attacker.

AKA: My Ex-Wife

[quote]Nards wrote:
AKA: My Ex-Wife[/quote]

Nice.

I heard a creationist call this the “dragon,” which is talked about in the Bible.

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
I heard a creationist call this the “dragon,” which is talked about in the Bible.[/quote]

So according to him, St. George stepped on a bug is now all fameous and shit?

Must be really frustrating and confusing to be a creationist.

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
I heard a creationist call this the “dragon,” which is talked about in the Bible.[/quote]

So according to him, St. George stepped on a bug is now all fameous and shit?

Must be really frustrating and confusing to be a creationist. [/quote]

According to most creationist, of the fundamental variety, don’t believe the story about St. George and his dragon.

Sort of like starship troopers

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
I heard a creationist call this the “dragon,” which is talked about in the Bible.[/quote]

So according to him, St. George stepped on a bug is now all fameous and shit?

Must be really frustrating and confusing to be a creationist. [/quote]

According to most creationist, of the fundamental variety, don’t believe the story about St. George and his dragon.[/quote]

Jesusfuckingchrist! Who CAN you believe about dragons? LOL

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:

[quote]aeyogi wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
I heard a creationist call this the “dragon,” which is talked about in the Bible.[/quote]

So according to him, St. George stepped on a bug is now all fameous and shit?

Must be really frustrating and confusing to be a creationist. [/quote]

According to most creationist, of the fundamental variety, don’t believe the story about St. George and his dragon.[/quote]

Jesusfuckingchrist! Who CAN you believe about dragons? LOL[/quote]

It’s an Eastern Orthodox story, talk to them.

that beetle cream-pied all over it’s own face…it’s the tub girl of beetles

Beetles suck. The Rolling Stones are a close 2nd.

I see what you did there

What the FUCK

How fucked are we that a pic of some guy ramming himself goes unnoticed and unmentioned?!?!?!?

OP, I like your threads. I felt sorry for you when you were dicked around by that girl, I cheered for you when you did a 300 or 315 bench.

But, what in the blue fuck is this thread about?

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Beetles suck. The Rolling Stones are a close 2nd.[/quote]

Man I thought I was the only one alive that didn’t like either of those groups, and in that order, until now.

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Beetles suck. The Rolling Stones are a close 2nd.[/quote]

Man I thought I was the only one alive that didn’t like either of those groups, and in that order, until now.

[/quote]

Well make it three, it’s all about Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.

I can’t understand, in a world where Led Zeppelin exists, why ANYONE would want to listen to the garbage elevator music the Beetles shat out. If I didn’t know who the Beetles were, and you played me a track from them I would assume it was elevator or lobby music.

[quote]XanderBuilt wrote:
OP, I like your threads. I felt sorry for you when you were dicked around by that girl, I cheered for you when you did a 300 or 315 bench.

But, what in the blue fuck is this thread about?[/quote]

Bombardier Beetles, good sir

I think this shrimp could beat the Bombardier beetle in a scrap. The beetle would come into the fight with a lot of theatrics and pizazz, a la Apollo Creed in Rocky IV, but the awesome punching power of the shrimp would brutalize the beetle into an untimely death, a la Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Beetles suck. The Rolling Stones are a close 2nd.[/quote]

Man I thought I was the only one alive that didn’t like either of those groups, and in that order, until now.

[/quote]

Well make it three, it’s all about Led Zeppelin…[/quote]

I came…