be carried long distances on the flying bees,

enabling, for example, these flightless beetles

to colonize islands.

Several Meloidae secrete extremely toxic

compounds as defense, for example the Spanish

Fly—actually a large, metallic green meloid Lytta

vesicatoria—secretes the toxic terpenoid cantharidin,

which is poisonous to vertebrates. In the eighteenth

century it became briefly popular, partly due to

the recommendations of the notorious French

nobleman Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) as a

supposed aphrodisiac, but it is dangerous and

probably ineffective. In fact, some cantharidin-

secreting meloids, for example the genus Epicauta,

can be so harmful if ingested that they are

associated with livestock mortality caused by

grazing in areas where the meloids are abundant.

notes

In some parts of Africa, meloids of the

genus Mylabris can be beneficial to farmers

as their larvae consume the egg pods

of locusts, keeping these serious pest

grasshoppers under control. However, the

adults of the same meloids can be harmful

to the same farmers by defoliating or eating

the flowers from crops such as millet

right | Meloe proscarabaeus A female

of a European Oil Beetle, which will

produce hundreds of triungulin larvae,

only a few of which will ever survive to

become adults.

left | Mylabris The larvae of

this African blister beetle develops

in the egg pods of grasshoppers

buried in the ground.