The birds and the bees and the blister beetles -

jewel beetles

metallic wood-boring bugs FROM HELL

Fossil jewel beetle from the Eocene, found in the Messel Pit (Germany)

buprestidae

The elytra of some Buprestidae species have been traditionally used in beetlewing

Buprestidae is a family of beetles known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles because of their glossy iridescent colors. Larvae of this family are known as flatheaded borers. The family is among the largest of the beetles, with some 15,500 species known in 775 genera. In addition, almost 100 fossil species have been described.

The larger and more spectacularly colored jewel beetles are highly prized by insect collectors. The elytra of some Buprestidae species have been traditionally used in beetlewing jewellery and decoration in certain countries in Asia, like India, Thailand and Japan.

Catoxantha, Chrysaspis, Euchroma and Megaloxantha contain the largest species. A variety of bright colors are known, often in complicated patterns. The iridescence common to these beetles is not due to pigments in the exoskeleton, but instead is caused by structural coloration, in which microscopic texture in their cuticle selectively reflects specific frequencies of light in particular directions. This is the same effect that makes a compact disc reflect multiple colors.

The larvae bore through roots, logs, stems, and leaves of various types of plants, ranging from trees to grasses. The wood boring types generally favor dying or dead branches on otherwise-healthy trees, while a few types attack green wood; some of these are serious pests capable of killing trees and causing major economic damage, such as the invasive emerald ash borer. Some species are attracted to recently burned forests to lay their eggs. They can sense pine wood smoke from up to 50 miles away, and can see infrared light, helping them to zero in as they get closer to a forest fire.

Ten species of flatheaded borers of the family Buprestidae feed on spruce and fir, but hemlock is their preferred food source (Rose and Lindquist 1985).

The bronzed adults are usually seen only where suitable material occurs in sunny locations.

beetle wing

Ancient artform with bugs

BEETLEWING is an ancient craft technique using iridescent beetle wings

In some instances, the beetle wings will retain their natural sparkle, even though the cloth surrounding them may have decayed….

BEETLEWING

Notable beetlewing garments include Lady Curzon's peacock dress (1903) and a costume dress worn by the actress Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, depicted in the painting Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889).

It was common in some of the ancient cultures of Asia to attach beetlewing pieces as an adornment to paintings, textiles and jewelry. Different species of metallic wood-boring beetle wings were used depending on the region, but traditionally the most valued were those from beetles belonging to genus Sternocera. Their wings were valued for their beautiful and hardy metallic emerald iridescence. The shiny appearance of beetlewings is long-lasting. They are surprisingly durable if subject to normal non-abusive use.

In Thailand, beetlewings of wood–boring beetles Sternocera spp. (Thai: แมลงทับ), like Sternocera aequisignata, were preferred to decorate clothing (shawls and Sabai cloth) and jewelry in former court circles. The beetles have a short life span of 3 to 4 weeks in their adult stage. To avoid killing the beetles, only those that die of natural causes are collected.

In 19th-century India exquisite masterpieces of embroidered textiles were produced using beetlewing pieces. These cloth items have survived the passage of time without losing their splendor. In some instances, the beetle wings will retain their natural sparkle, even though the cloth surrounding them may have decayed.

The species of beetle traditionally used in decorative work in Japan is Chrysochroa fulgidissima, known also as Tamamushi.

In Thailand this ancient tradition has mostly died out. In Bangkok, rare pieces of crafts and jewelry made with beetlewing are displayed at the Dusit Palace complex of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), now a museum.

Thanks to the encouragement and support of Queen Sirikit, efforts are being made to preserve this traditional art at the Chitralada Center by supporting artisans who have kept the skill alive. Modern beetlewing work is usually applied on simple items, like earrings and collage work. These are marketed mostly through tourist-oriented shops.

Technology

The shrine is made of lacquered hinoki or Japanese cypress and camphor wood. Both are native species. Attached to the members of the building and the edges of plinth and dais are bands of openwork bronze. It was under this metalwork that the tamamushi wings were applied in the technique known as beetlewing. The tamamushi beetle, a species of jewel beetle, is also native to Japan. The Thousand Buddhas are of repoussé or hammered bronze and the roof tiles are also of metal. Optical microscopy or instrumental analysis, ideally non-invasive, would be needed to identify conclusively the pigments and binder used in the original colour scheme – red, green, yellow, and white on a black ground. The range of available pigments, compared with that evident in the early decorated tumuli, was transformed with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan. The precise medium in which the pigments are bound is uncertain. While commonly referred to as lacquer, since the Meiji period some scholars have argued instead that the paintings employ the technique known as mitsuda-e, an early type of oil painting, using perilla (shiso) oil with litharge as a desiccant.

PRETTY

FLY FOR A

BLISTER

BEETLE

Spanish fly

In ancient China, the beetles were mixed with human excrement, arsenic, and wolfsbane to make the world's first recorded stink bomb

The generic name is from the Greek λύττα (lytta), meaning martial rage, raging madness, Bacchic frenzy, or rabies. The specific name is derived from Latin vesica, blister.

The species and others in its family were used in traditional apothecary preparations as “Cantharides”. The insect is the source of the terpenoid cantharidin, a toxic blistering agent once used as an exfoliating agent, anti-rheumatic drug and an aphrodisiac. The substance has also found culinary use in some blends of the North African spice mix ras el hanout. Its various supposed benefits have been responsible for accidental poisonings.

Lytta vesicatoria was formerly named Cantharis vesicatoria, although the genus Cantharis is in an unrelated family, Cantharidae, the soldier beetles. It was classified there erroneously until the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius corrected its name in his Systema entomologiae in 1775. He reclassified the Spanish fly as the type species of the new genus Lytta, in the family Meloidae.

The adult Spanish fly is a slender, soft-bodied metallic and iridescent golden-green insect, one of the blister beetles. It is approximately 5 mm (0.20 in) wide by 20 mm (0.79 in) long.

BEE KILLER AMONG OTHER HORRORS

Ivy bee (Colletes hederae), carrying parasitic triungulins of Stenoria analis, another species of blister beetle from the family Meloidae

The female lays her fertilised eggs on the ground, near the nest of a ground-nesting solitary bee. The larvae are very active as soon as they hatch. They climb a flowering plant and await the arrival of a solitary bee. They hook themselves on to the bee using the three claws on their legs that give the first instar larvae their name, triungulins (from Latin tri, three, and ungulus, claw). The bee carries the larvae back to its nest, where they feed on bee larvae and the bees’ food supplies. The larvae are thus somewhere between predators and parasites. The active larvae moult into very different, more typically scarabaeoid larvae for the remaining two or more instars, in a development type called hypermetamorphosis. The adults emerge from the bees’ nest and fly to the woody plants on which they feed.

The defensive chemical cantharidin, for which the beetle is known, is synthesised only by males; females obtain it from males during mating, as the spermatophore contains some. This may be a nuptial gift, increasing the value of mating to the female, and thus increasing the male’s reproductive fitness. Zoologists note that the conspicuous coloration, the presence of a powerful toxin, and the adults’ aggregating behaviour in full view of any predators strongly suggest aposematism among the blistering meloid beetles.

APHRODISIAC? MORE LIKE EBOLA

L. vesicatoria was used internally as a diuretic stimulant and aphrodisiac. In ancient Greece and Rome, Spanish fly was used to attempt to treat skin diseases, while in medieval Persia, Islamic medicine applied Spanish fly, named ḏarārīḥ (ذراریـح), to attempt to prevent rabies. In the 19th century, Spanish fly was used externally mainly as blistering agent and local irritant; also, in chronic gonorrhoea, paralysis, lepra, ulcers therapy. Cantharidin, the principal active component in preparations of Spanish fly, was first isolated and named in 1810 by the French chemist Pierre Robiquet, who demonstrated that it was the principal agent responsible for the aggressively blistering properties of this insect’s egg coating. It was asserted at that time that it was as toxic as the most violent poisons then known, such as strychnine. Each beetle contains some 0.2–0.7 mg of cantharidin, males having significantly more than females. The beetle secretes the agent orally, and exudes it from its joints as a milky fluid. The potency of the insect as a blistering agent has been known since antiquity and the activity has been used in various ways. This has led to its small-scale commercial preparation and sale, in a powdered form known as cantharides (from the plural of Greek κανθαρίς, Kantharis, beetle), obtained from dried and ground beetles. The crushed powder is of yellow-brown to brown-olive color with iridescent reflections, is of disagreeable scent, and is bitter to taste. Cantharidin, the active agent, is a terpenoid, and is produced by some other insects, such as Epicauta immaculata. Cantharidin is dangerously toxic, inhibiting the enzyme phosphatase 2A. It causes irritation, blistering, bleeding and discomfort. These effects can escalate to erosion and bleeding of mucosa in each system, sometimes followed by severe gastro-intestinal bleeding and acute tubular necrosis and glomerular destruction, resulting in gastro-intestinal and renal dysfunction, organ failure, and death.

Did Spanish Fly Kill George Washington? What?

Preparations of Spanish fly and its active agent have been implicated in both inadvertent and intentional poisonings. Arthur Kendrick Ford was imprisoned in 1954 for the unintended deaths of two women surreptitiously given candies laced with cantharidin, which he had intended to act as an aphrodisiac. It has been suggested that George Washington was treated with Spanish fly for epiglottitis, the condition which caused his death.

Currently (2023) the cantharidin in US, in the form of collodion, is used in the treatment of warts and molluscum.

In Morocco and other parts of North Africa, spice blends known as ras el hanout sometimes included as a minor ingredient “green metallic beetles”, inferred to be L. vesicatoria, although its sale in Moroccan spice markets was banned in the 1990s. Dawamesk, a spread or jam made in North Africa and containing hashish, almond paste, pistachio nuts, sugar, orange or tamarind peel, cloves, and other various spices, occasionally included cantharides.

classified as an extremely hazardous substance

Many species of blister beetles are toxic to horses A few beetles consumed in a single feeding of alfalfa hay may be lethal. In semiarid areas of the western United States, modern harvesting techniques may contribute to cantharidin content in harvested forage. The practice of hay conditioning, crushing the stalks to promote drying, also crushes any beetles present and causes the release of cantharidin into the fodder. Blister beetles are attracted to alfalfa and weeds during bloom. Reducing weeds and timing harvests before and after bloom are sound management practices. Using equipment without hay conditioners may reduce beetle mortality and allow them to escape before baling. That’s a predicament. Maybe stop planting beans.

Poisoning from cantharidin is a significant veterinary concern, especially in horses, but it can also be poisonous to humans if taken internally. Externally, cantharidin is a potent vesicant (blistering agent), exposure to which can cause severe chemical burns. Properly dosed and applied, the same properties have also been used therapeutically, for instance, for treatment of skin conditions, such as molluscum contagiosum infection of the skin.

Cantharidin is classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the United States, and is subject to strict reporting requirements by facilities that produce, store, or use it in significant quantities. Does that include anybody running around with toxic sperms? WTF is going on here?

THIS IS TERRIBLE STUFF

Preparations made from blister beetles (particularly “Spanish fly“) have been used since ancient times as an aphrodisiac, possibly because their physical effects were perceived to mimic those of sexual arousal, and because they can cause prolonged erection or priapism in men. These preparations were known as cantharides, from the Greek word for “beetle.”

Examples of such use found in historical sources include:

The ancient Roman historian Tacitus relates that a cantharid preparation was used by the empress Livia, wife of Augustus Caesar, to entice members of the imperial family or dinner guests to commit sexual indiscretions (thus, providing her information to hold over them).
The German emperor Henry IV (1050–1106) is said to have consumed cantharides.
The French surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) described a case in 1572 of a man suffering from “the most frightful satyriasis” after taking a potion composed of nettles and a cantharid extract. This is perhaps the same man of whom Paré relates that a courtesan sprinkled a cantharid powder on food she served to him, after which the man experienced “violent priapism” and anal bleeding, of which he later died. Paré also cites the case of a priest who died of hematuria after swallowing a dose of cantharides, which he intended to fortify his sex drive.
Cantharides were in widespread use among the upper classes in France in the 1600s, despite being a banned substance. Police searches in connection with a rash of poisonings around 1680 turned up many stashes of “bluish flies,” which were known to be used in the preparation of aphrodisiac potions.
The French sorceress Catherine Monvoisin (known as “La Voisin,” c. 1640–1680) was recorded in the 1670s as having prepared a love charm made from Spanish fly mixed with dried mole’s blood and bat’s blood.
Aphrodisiac sweets presumably laced with cantharides were circulated within libertine circles during the 1700s in France. They were multicolored tablets nicknamed “pastilles de Richelieu,” after the Maréchal de Richelieu, a notorious libertine (not to be confused with his great-uncle, the Cardinal Richelieu) who procured sexual encounters for King Louis XV.
The French writer Donatien Alphonse François ⁠— ⁠notoriously known as the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) ⁠— ⁠is said to have given aniseed-flavored pastilles laced with Spanish fly to two prostitutes at a pair of orgies in 1772, poisoning and nearly killing them. He was sentenced to death for that (and for the crime of sodomy), but was later reprieved on appeal.

100 million years of blister beetles is enough

The family is thought to have begun diversifying during the Early Cretaceous. The oldest fossil of the group is a larva (triangulin) found phoretic on a schizopterid bug from the mid Cretaceous Burmese amber, dated to around 99 million years ago.

Moonsault

The elytra primarily serve as protective wing-cases for the hindwings underneath, which are used for flying

An elytron (from Ancient Greek ἔλυτρον (élutron) ‘sheath, cover’; pl elytra) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alternatively spelled as “hemielytra”), and in most species only the basal half is thickened while the apex is membranous, but when they are entirely thickened the condition is referred to as “coleopteroid”. An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard.

To fly, a beetle typically opens the elytra and then extends the hindwings, flying while still holding the elytra open, though many beetles in the families Scarabaeidae and Buprestidae can fly with the elytra closed (e.g., most Cetoniinae;).

In a number of groups, the elytra are reduced to various degrees, (e.g., the beetle families Staphylinidae and Ripiphoridae), or secondarily lost altogether, as in various Elateroidea lineages with wingless females.

In some flightless groups, the elytra are present but fused together, and the hindwings are absent (e.g., some ground beetles (Carabidae), scarab beetles, and weevils).

Pop-up, double knee facebreaker

The annelids (Annelida from Latin anellus, “little ring”), aka the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches.

In annelids, elytra are shield-like scales that are attached dorsally, one pair on each of a number of alternating segments and entirely or partly cover the dorsum. Elytra are modified dorsal cirri, and their number, size, location, and ornamentation are important taxonomic characters. The basal part of the elytra is known as the elytrophore; if (as is often the case) elytra are lost their presence is indicated by the elytrophore which is still present and visible.

Annelids possessing elytra are also known as “scale worms”. Possession of elytra is characteristic of the annelid suborder Aphroditiformia.

Hemelytra in Schizopteridae; figures B and C are considered "coleopteroid" as they lack membrane

Heteroptera families

The elytra of this cockchafe beetle are readily distinguished from the transparent hindwings.

Cockchafer at Wikipedia

The common cockchafer, (Melolontha melolontha) colloquially called the Maybug, Maybeetle or doodlebug, is a species of scarab beetle belonging to the genus Melolontha native to Europe.

Ripiphorus fasciatus-complex, female

Ripiphoridae at Wikipedia

Ripiphorus fasciatus is a species of wedge-shaped beetle with parasitoid larvae. R. fasciatus likely parasitizes Halictid bees; all Ripiphorus parasitize ground-nesting bees. Ripiphoridae are hypermetamorphic parasitoids, an attribute that they share with the Meloidae. Members of the family differ in their choice of hosts.

A Eunoe leiotentaculata specimen showing its 15 pairs of elytra.

Category: Phyllodocida

Euphione sp. specimen with its highly ornamented elytra.

Annelid Anatomy

Microscope image of an individual elytron from Augenerilepidonotus dictyolepis. Note the fringing papillae on the border.

Augenerilepidonotus at Wikipedia

Wikipedia and Other References

jewel beetles and Beetlewing Art

1. Life cycle of the rounded jewel beetles, Sternocera spp. วงจรชีวิตของแมลงทับกลมใช้เวลานานถึง 2 ปี – Siam Insect Zoo-Museum
2. Antique Costumes & Textiles – Beetlewing, Early 19th century
3. Chitralada – SUPPORT Foundation Archived 2011-05-26 at the Wayback Machine
4. Bunkazai Hogo Iinkai, ed. (1963). 国宝上古, 飛鳥·奈良時代, 西魏·唐 [National Treasures of Japan I: Ancient times, Asuka period, Nara period, Western Wei, Tang] (in Japanese and English). Mainchi Shimbunsha. p. 40.
5. Mizuno Seiichi (1974). Asuka Buddhist Art: Horyuji. Weatherhill. pp. 40–52.
6. "Tamamushi no zushi". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
7. "玉蟲厨子" [Tamamushi Shrine]. Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
8. "Zushi". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
9. Fenollosa, Ernest F (1912). Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art: An Outline History of East Asiatic Design. Heinemann. p. 49.
10. Uehara Kazu (1991). 玉虫厨子飛鳥・白鳳美術様式史論 .[Tamamushi-no-Zushi Shrine in Hōryū-ji Temple: a Study of Art in the Asuka-Hakuhō Period, Focussing on their Stylistic Features] (in Japanese). Yoshikawa Kōbunkan. pp. 1 f., passim. ISBN 4-642-07300-0.
11. Mason, Penelope E. (2004). History of Japanese Art (2nd (paperback) ed.). Prentice Hall. pp. 65, 74–81. ISBN 978-0-13-117601-0.
12. Uehara Kazu (1991). 玉虫厨子飛鳥・白鳳美術様式史論 [Tamamushi-no-Zushi Shrine in Hōryū-ji Temple: a Study of Art in the Asuka-Hakuhō Period, Focussing on their Stylistic Features] (in Japanese). Yoshikawa Kōbunkan. pp. 395–401. ISBN 4-642-07300-0.
13. Kuchitsu Nobuaki (2007). "Impact of the introduction of Buddhism on the variation of pigments used in Japan". In Yamauchi Kazuya (et al.) (ed.). Mural Paintings of the Silk Road: Cultural Exchanges between East and West. Archetype. pp. 77–80. ISBN 978-1-904982-22-7.
14. Yamasaki Kazuo; Emoto Yoshimichi (1979). "Pigments used on Japanese Paintings from the Protohistoric Period through the 17th Century". Ars Orientalis. 11: 1–14.
15. "Mitsuda-e". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
16. "The first fossil buprestids from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of China (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2745: 53–62. 2011.
17. H. Schmitz, H. Bleckmann (1998). "The photomechanic infrared receptor for the detection of forest fires in the beetle Melanophila acuminata (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)". J Comp Physiol A. 182: 647–657.
18. Rose, A.H.; Lindquist, O.H. 1985. Insects of eastern spruces, fir and, hemlock, revised edition. Gov’t Can., Can. For. Serv., Ottawa, For. Tech. Rep. 23. 159 p. (cited in Coates et al. 1994, cited orig ed 1977)

Categories: Buprestidae, Polyphaga families, Woodboring beetles, Taxa named by William Elford Leach, Thai culture, Indian art, Burmese culture, Handicrafts, Jewellery, Woven fabricsI, nsects in culture, Insects in art, Insects in religion, Beetles and humans, Japanese art, Architecture in Japan, Japanese paintings, Asuka period, National, Treasures of JapanHōryū-ji

SPANISH FLY and blister beetles in general

1. Smakosz, Aleksander Karol (31 January 2022). "Bug as a Drug. Lytta vesicatoria L. Applications in Nineteenth Century Official Medicine". Pharmacognosy Reviews. 16 (31): 27–33. doi:10.5530/phrev.2022.16.5. S2CID 246541585.
2. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). "λύττα, λυττάω, λυττητικός, etc., v. λυσς-". Liddell & Scott. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
3. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). "λύσσα". Liddell & Scott. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
4 "Latin definition for: vesica, vesicae". Latin Dictionary & Grammar Resources. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
5. Anon (2012) [2009]. "Cantharide". Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary. Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania: Farlex. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
6. Selander, Richardg B. (1991). "On the Nomenclature and Classification of Meloidae (Coleoptera)". Insecta Mundi. 5 (2): 65–94.
7. Selander, R. B. (1991). "On the nomenclature and classification of Meloidae (Coleoptera)]". Insecta Mundi. 5 (2): 65–94.
8. Young, Daniel K. (1984). "Cantharidin and insects: an historical review". The Great Lakes Entomologist. 17 (4): 187–194.
9. Schlager, Neil, ed. (2004). "Coleoptera (beetles and weevils)". Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 3, Insects (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, Michigan: Thomson-Gale/American Zoo and Aquarium Association. p. 331. ISBN 978-0787657796. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
10. "Illustrated lecture notes on Tropical Medicine - Ectoparasites - Beetles" (PDF). Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
11. Boggs, Carol L. (1995). Leather, S. R.; Hardie, J. (eds.). Male Nuptial Gifts: Phenotypic Consequences and Evolutionary Implications. CRC Press. pp. 215–242.
12. Cutler, Horace G. (1992). "An Historical Perspective of Ancient Poisons". In Nigg, Herbert N.; Seigler, David S. (eds.). Phytochemical Resources for Medicine and Agriculture. p. 3. doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2584-8_1. ISBN 978-1-4899-2586-2.
13. Guala, Gerald, ed. (2015). "Geographic Information: Geographic Division". Lytta vesicatoria (Linnaeus, 1758), Taxonomic Serial No.: 114404. Reston, Virginia: United States Geological Survey, Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
14. "Lytta vesicatoria (Linnaeus, 1758)". UK Beetle Recording. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
15. "Lytta (Lytta) vesicatoria vesicatoria Linnaeus, 1758". Polish Biodiversity Information Network (Krajowa Sieć Informacji o Bioróżnorodności). Retrieved 12 January 2017.
16. Neligan, J. M.; Macnamara, R. (1867). Medicines, their uses and mode of administration; including a complete conspectus of the three British Pharmacopoeias, an account of all the new remedies, and an Appendix of Formulae. Fanin & Company. p. 297.
17. Robiquet, M. (1810). "Expériences sur les cantharides". Annales de Chimie. 76: 302–322.
18. Froberg, Blake A. (2010). "Animals". In Holstege, Christopher P.; Neer, Thomas; Saathoff, Gregory B.; Furbee, R. Brent (eds.). Criminal Poisoning: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett. pp. 39–48, esp. 41, 43, 45ff. ISBN 978-1449617578. Retrieved 16 December 2015. Note: the active agent appears variously as cantharidin,: 41 and "cantharadin": 43, 45ff or "canthariadin": 238 (sic).
19. Aggrawal, Anil, ed. (2007). "VII. Spanish Fly (Cantharides)". APC Textbook of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. New Delhi, India: Avichal. p. 652f. ISBN 978-8177394191. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
20. Blood, Douglas Charles; Studdert, Virginia P.; Gay, Clive C., eds. (2007). "Cantharides". Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA, USA: Elsevier. ISBN 978-0702027888. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
21. Jonas, Wayne B., ed. (2005). "Cantharides". Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA, USA: Elsevier Saunders. ISBN 978-0323025164. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
22. Evans, T. J.; Hooser, S. B. (2010). "Comparative Gastrointestinal Toxicity (Ch. 16)". In Hooser, Stephen; McQueen, Charlene (eds.). Comprehensive Toxicology (2nd ed.). London, England: Elsevier Academic Press. pp. 195–206. ISBN 978-0080468846.
23. Gwaltney-Brant, Sharon M.; Dunayer, Eric; Youssef, Hany (2012). "Terrestrial Zootoxins [Coleoptera: Meloidae (Blister Beetles)". In Gupta, Ramesh C. (ed.). Veterinary Toxicology: Basic and Clinical Principles (2nd ed.). London, England: Elsevier Academic Press. pp. 975–978. ISBN 978-0123859266. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
24. Karras, David J.; Farrell, S. E.; Harrigan, R. A.; et al. (1996). "Poisoning From "Spanish Fly" (Cantharidin)". The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 14 (5): 478–483. doi:10.1016/S0735-6757(96)90158-8. PMID 8765116. While most commonly available preparations of Spanish fly contain cantharidin in negligible amounts, if at all, the chemical is available illicitly in concentrations capable of causing severe toxicity.
25. Wilson, C. R. (2010). "Methods for Analysis of Gastrointestinal Toxicants (Ch. 9)". In Hooser, Stephen; McQueen, Charlene (eds.). Comprehensive Toxicology (2nd ed.). London, England: Elsevier Academic Press. pp. 145–152, esp. 150. ISBN 978-0080468846. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
26. Henriques, Peter R. (2000). The Death of George Washington: He Died as He Lived. Mount Vernon, Virginia: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. pp. 27–36. ISBN 978-0-931917-35-6.
27. Davidson, Alan (1999). Jaine, Tom (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Food. Vannithone, Soun (illustrator). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 671ff. ISBN 978-0-19-211579-9. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
28. Green, Jonathon (12 October 2002). "Spoonfuls of paradise". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
29. Theroux, Paul (1989). Riding the Iron Rooster. Ivy Books. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-8041-0454-8.
30. Moallemi, Mostafa; Yousofpour, Mohammad; Jokar, Assie (2021). "Prevention of Rabies by Application of Lytta vesicatoria in Persian Medicine Texts in Islamic Civilization". Traditional and Integrative Medicine. 6 (1): 70–77.

EXTERNAL LINKS

"Cantharides" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. V (9th ed.). 1878. p. 31.

Categories: Meloidae, Abortifacients, Beetles described in 1758, Poisonous animals, Insect products, Beetles of Europe, Insects in culture, Parasites of bees

Elytron

1. "elytron". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
2. Michelle Gleeson (2016), Miniature Lives: Identifying Insects in Your Home and Garden, CSIRO Publishing, p. 313, ISBN 9781486301386
3. Augustus Radcliffe Grote (1909), Canadian Entomologist, vol. 41, Entomological Society of Canada
4. ἔλυτρον. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
5. Tihelka, Erik et al. “Mimicry in Cretaceous Bugs.” iScience vol. 23,7 (2020): 101280. doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101280
6. "Definition of SHARD". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
7. Šípek, Petr; Fabrizi, Silvia; Eberle, Jonas; Ahrens, Dirk (2016). "A molecular phylogeny of rose chafers (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) reveals a complex and concerted morphological evolution related to their flight mode". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 101: 163–175. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.012. PMID 27165937.

Category: Insect anatomy

1. "elytron". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
2. Beesley, Pamela L; Glasby, Christopher John; Glasby, Christopher J; Ross, Graham J (2000), Polychaetes & allies : the southern synthesis, CSIRO Publishing, ISBN 978-0-643-06571-0
3. Read, Geoffrey B.; Fauchald, Kristian (2020). "The World Polychaeta Database".
4. McIntosh, William Carmichael (1878). "Annelida" . In Baynes, T. S. (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 65–72.

Categories: Annelid anatomy, Polychaetes

Further Notes: Traditionally the annelids have been divided into two major groups, the polychaetes and clitellates. In turn the clitellates were divided into oligochaetes, which include earthworms and hirudinomorphs. Hirudinomorpha is a group of highly specialized, mostly blood-feeding, ectoparasitic annelids whose best-known members are leeches. Annelids are members of the protostomes, one of the two major superphyla of bilaterian animals – the other is the deuterostomes, which includes vertebrates. Within the protostomes, annelids used to be grouped with arthropods under the super-group Articulata (“jointed animals”), as segmentation is obvious in most members of both phyla. However, the genes that drive segmentation in arthropods do not appear to do the same in annelids. Arthropods and annelids both have close relatives that are unsegmented. It is at least as easy to assume that they evolved segmented bodies independently as it is to assume that the ancestral protostome or bilaterian was segmented and that segmentation disappeared in many descendant phyla. The current view is that annelids are grouped with molluscs, brachiopods and several other phyla that have lophophores (fan-like feeding structures) and/or trochophore larvae as members of Lophotrochozoa. Meanwhile, arthropods are now regarded as members of the Ecdysozoa (“animals that molt”), along with some phyla that are unsegmented.