A Little Bit More
Blister Beetle © Solon Morse
There are more than 335 different species of blister beetles in North America so don’t assume they all look like the one pictured on the unit poster. Most of these beetles feed on plants – both flowers and foliage – but a few are predaceous. If you’ve walked about in fields with lots of goldenrod, asters, and other meadow plants in late summer, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of these insects feeding there.
As you would expect, blister beetles get their name from the toxic material they’re able to eject from leg joints. This material - their blood that has the toxin mixed in - is squirted out when the beetle is handled and can actually blister your skin. Although these blisters are uncomfortable, apparently they’re not painful and quickly heal. As you might guess, this chemical is a good deterrent to hungry birds.
It’s always interesting to learn that our forefathers were well aware of the chemicals that the natural world supplied; drug stores weren’t available then. They knew about blister beetles too, although they wouldn’t have understood the chemistry involved. People in the past actually thought these substances from blister beetles were good for their own health and well-being and would take these beetles internally. Today we rely on strict research to determine which drugs we should take – most of us avoid this kind of self-prescribing of “medicine” today!
Activities
Science & English – New Discovery!
Objectives: Creative Writing
Materials: Pencil, paper, and access to library or internet
When you first read about blister beetles and their special defense, it may have seemed like a made-up story – kind of like the “poodle in the microwave” story. There are times when accurate information about various animals almost seems too strange to be true. Here’s your chance to select an animal and use your creativity to come up with a “reasonable” defensive mechanism that hasn’t been discovered yet. See what you/your students can do with this writing assignment.
1. Decide on a real animal you’d like to write about
2. Once you’ve decided on your animal, you’ll need enough information so most of what you write about is accurate. But…you’re going to embellish or exaggerate (make bigger than life) a certain characteristic of your animal and create some kind of defensive mechanism that they use for protection.
3. Your essay needn’t be very long (instructor will tell you how much to write) but you’ll need the animal’s name, some bits of information about its life (where it lives, what it looks like, what it eats, what its enemies are, and how it avoids predators).
4. Then you’ll explain that there is a “new discovery” about this animal that scientists have just learned and you’re going to describe it so everyone knows about it. You want to be creative with your “new defense” without being too “over-the–top”.
See what you can come up with that makes sense for that animal.
Key Concepts
Behavior and Regulation, Predator/Prey Relationships, Structures and Functions
Questions
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