ENWC205 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Bombardier Beetle, Ground Beetle, Cockroach

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Entomology and Wildlife Conservation
• Course: ENWC205
• Professor: Deborah Delaney

Document Summary

Eisner begins this chapter by recalling all the times in his life where he used his keen. Reading 9 chapter 1 sense of smell, and how that led him to study chemical communication in insects. He mentions the pungent and specific smell that is emitted by millipedes as well as a type of daddy-long-leg from uruguay. While out collecting insects one day he came across a certain ground beetle that when picked up, emits a clicking sound and a visible puff of gas. He notices that these beetles emit the same smell that he observed from the millipedes and the daddy-long legs. His colleague informed him that he had found a bombardier beetle. He had an encounter around the same time with a scientist from uruguay studying a daddy-long-leg and trying to identify the substance from it. The substance turned out to be benzoquinones and they named the chemical mixture gonyleptidine.