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Rendering the inedible edible: circumvention of a millipede's chemical defense by a predaceous beetle larva - PubMed

  • ️Thu Jan 01 1998

Rendering the inedible edible: circumvention of a millipede's chemical defense by a predaceous beetle larva

T Eisner et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998.

Abstract

The larva of the phengodid beetle, Phengodes laticollis, feeds on the millipede, Floridobolus penneri, without risking exposure to the repellent benzoquinones ordinarily ejected by the millipede from its defensive glands when attacked. The phengodid subdues the millipede by piercing the millipede's integument with its hollow sickle-shaped mandibles and apparently injecting gastric fluid. The infusion abruptly paralyzes the millipede, which thereby is prevented from discharging its glands. As the phengodid then imbibes the liquefied systemic contents of the dead millipede, the millipede's benzoquinones remain harmlessly confined to the glands, prevented from diffusing into the millipede's body cavity by the glands' impervious cuticular lining. At the end of the meal only the millipede's skeletal armor and glandular sacs remain uneaten. Analysis of such discarded sacs showed these to contain benzoquinones in amounts commensurate with those present in replete glands of living millipedes.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1

(A) P. laticollis larva. (B) Larva in process of killing millipede (F. penneri). Note tiny droplets of secretion (arrows) emitted from two glands. (C) Larva commencing to feed on millipede. (D) Larva midway through its meal. (Bar = 1 cm.)

Figure 2
Figure 2

Millipede (F. penneri). (A) Individual that has coiled in response to manual disturbance and has emitted droplets of secretion from its defensive glands. (B) Inner view of body wall, showing sacs of defensive glands, nestled amid the body wall musculature. (C) Individual defensive gland, exposed by dissecting away the body wall muscles. Note the efferent duct leading from the sac to the gland opening. The terminal portion of the duct is inflected, forming a valve (v). A muscle (m), serving to open the valve, inserts on the inflection. (D) Enlarged view of valve. The opener muscle has been dissolved away by treatment with KOH. (E) Transverse histological section through valvular portion of duct, showing relation to opener muscle (m) (partly polarized light). (F) Millipede segment, sucked out by a P. laticollis larva. Note the intact glands, replete with secretion. (G) Enlarged view of a gland as in F; note that the valve (v) is occluded and that no trace remains of the opener muscle. (H) Cephalic nervous system of a millipede just killed by a P. laticollis larva (brain, circumesophageal connectives, subesophageal commisure, and nerve cord are intact). (Bars: A = 1 cm; B and F = 5 mm; C and G = 0.5 mm; D = 0.1 mm; E = 0.05 mm; H = 1 mm.)

Figure 3
Figure 3

Phengodid larva (P. laticollis). (A) Dorsolateral view of head (fr, frontal plate; md, mandible; mo, oral slit). (B) Same, with right half of frontal plate dissected away, showing orifice at base of mandible. (C) Mandible, with tip broken off, revealing the inner duct that runs the length of the mandible. (D) Orifice at tip of mandible. [Bars = 0.5 mm (B); 0.1 mm (C); and 0.05 mm (D).]

Figure 4
Figure 4

Diagram of digestive system of the P. laticollis larva (es, esophagus; pv, proventriculus; mg, midgut; mt, malpighian tubules; hg, hindgut).

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References

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