Find thousands of books, manuscripts, visual materials and unpublished archives from our collections, many of them with free online access.
Search for free, downloadable images taken from our library and museum collections, including paintings, illustrations, photos and more.
Blister Beetle, lateral view
- Macroscopic Solutions
- Digital Images
- Online
Available online
Licence
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
You can use this work for any purpose, as long as it is not primarily intended for or directed to commercial advantage or monetary compensation. You should also provide attribution to the original work, source and licence.
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) terms and conditions https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Credit: Blister Beetle, lateral view. Macroscopic Solutions. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Selected images from this work
About this work
Description
Blister Beetle
Blister beetles are of the family Meloidae, they are called blister beetles as the chemical they secrete in defense is the blistering agent cantharidin. Some species are brightly coloured to warn predators of the danger whilst others such as the one pictured here are more conspicuous.
Although toxic, cantharidin has been used in folk medicine and more recently its properties appear in some preparations for topical ointments used to treat skin infections.
Width of Image 1.5 centimetres