How does your view explain the bombardier beetle?

[whirlingmerc]

Has two tanks inside with chemicals akin to rocket fuel and a combustion chamber with intake and exhaust value and somewhere a catalyst that causes a super heated shot every 4 ms or so?

Sounds just like it was planned.

In the lab we might catalyze the two chemicals with platinum but we don't quite know where the catalyst is inside that sneaky little bug. In hairs in the combustion chamber?

bomadier beatle swallowed by frog - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bomadier beatle mantis - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bombardier beetle spider - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

 

[Audie]

Has two tanks inside with chemicals akin to rocket fuel and a combustion chamber with intake and exhaust value and somewhere a catalyst that causes a super heated shot every 4 ms or so?

Sounds just like it was planned.

In the lab we might catalyze the two chemicals with platinum but we don't quite know where the catalyst is inside that sneaky little bug. In hairs in the combustion chamber?

bomadier beatle swallowed by frog - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bomadier beatle mantis - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bombardier beetle spider - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

"Sounds like" That is like totally scientific and deeply analytical.

 

[Revoltingest]

Has two tanks inside with chemicals akin to rocket fuel and a combustion chamber with intake and exhaust value and somewhere a catalyst that causes a super heated shot every 4 ms or so?

Sounds just like it was planned.

In the lab we might catalyze the two chemicals with platinum but we don't quite know where the catalyst is inside that sneaky little bug. In hairs in the combustion chamber?

bomadier beatle swallowed by frog - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bomadier beatle mantis - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

bombardier beetle spider - Yahoo Search Results Video Search Results

It is indeed one cool bug...boiling anal chemical spray...very cool.

 

[ImmortalFlame]

"As Thomas Eisner shows in his article "Chemical Defense Against Predation in Arthropods" (Chemical Ecology, 1970, pp. 157-215), hydrogen peroxide is a normal metabolic byproduct in insects, and various quinones are used to harden (or "sclerotinize") the cuticle of insects. All kinds of insects therefore secrete these chemicals. As a byproduct, hydroquinone tastes bad to predators and is the chemical that makes stink bugs stink. So, if an insect's cuticle became indented, forming little sacs to store some of this hydroquinone, it would have an advantage over its fellows even if its storage mechanism was not yet very efficient.

"Schildknecht himself points out that the carabid family of beetles has little sacs like this. They have glands that exude enzymes into pygidial bladders that empty into the anus, even though these don't explode. So, even though the bombardier beetle is the only carabid beetle to shoot boiling liquid at its enemies, the other carabid beetles, living in different ecological niches, survive very well because, with their thick-walled little sacs, they can poison their enemies but not themselves.

"Therefore, all the pre-bombardier beetle had to do was direct some of that hydrogen peroxide into its collection bladder, develop a little valve between the collection bladder and vestibule chamber, and finally supply the catalase and peroxidase in the vestibule. The hydrogen peroxide would make the insect more poisonous to eat than it was before. A muscle that pulled the duct between the two chambers open, and relaxed to let it close, would help the beetle be more selective about its poison discharges. Even if this valve structure was crude at first, it would have survival value until the side of the duct attached to the muscle could evolve into a little door. The enzymes would be useful the moment they appeared. Even if the beetle's new firing mechanism could not be aimed all that well or if the chemicals were not being secreted in the best proportions at first, the mechanism would still be useful from the start, and the beetle could refine it in time."
SOURCE: The Bombardier Beetle Myth Exploded | National Center for Science Education​

 

[Valjean]

Why would this particular capability be any more extraordinary than any other biological function?

 

[Galateasdream]

I let the experts work on the details, but I'm happy with accepting a layman's understanding of 'evolution'.