Bustards, the biggest flying birds, are ground-dwelling birds present in Africa, Europe, and Asia. There are 26 species within the household Otitidae, ranging in dimension from 16 to 60 inches. The Nice Bustard (left) can weigh as a lot as 40 kilos whereas the smallest species, the Little Brown Bustard, weighs round 1.6 kilos. Bustards are omnivorous, feeding primarily on seeds and invertebrates. They’ve sturdy legs and large toes, pecking for meals as they go. Most desire to run or stroll over flying. They’ve lengthy broad wings with “fingered” wingtips, and hanging patterns in flight. Many have fascinating mating shows, corresponding to inflating throat sacs or elevating elaborate feathered crests. The feminine lays three to 5 darkish, speckled eggs in a scrape within the floor, and incubates them alone. Bustards are gregarious exterior the breeding season, however are very cautious and troublesome to method within the open habitats they like.
We’ve identified for a few years that a lot of bugs comprise distasteful chemical substances that deter predators from consuming greater than one of many bugs. The case of the monarch butterfly larvae and Blue Jays is well-known.
In the course of the breeding season, males of the Nice Bustard, Otis tarda, ingest giant quantities of blister beetles, a black and purple toxin-producing insect. Blister beetles are so referred to as for his or her defensive secretion of a caustic agent, cantharidin, which causes burns and blisters on the pores and skin and is toxic if ingested. When dealt with roughly by an individual or animal, the blister beetle breaks open a blood vessel on considered one of its legs to launch the toxin. The colour of the beetle is a warning to predators that hassle awaits them; this should be a profitable technique as there are 7500 species of blister beetles.
As reported in PLOS ONE “Particularly throughout mating season, nice bustards eat sure poisonous species of blister beetles to show how robust and wholesome they’re. Scientists have found that it’s not simply bravado; the toxins from the beetles additionally kill parasites that stay within the birds’ reproductive orifice referred to as the cloaca. The cloaca, which can also be used for defecating, is then rigorously inspected by the feminine. The male’s white plumage is assumed to make this examination simpler, because the darker orifice stands out in opposition to the brilliant feathers. If the feminine deems him to be low sufficient in parasites because of all of the toxic beetles he’s been slugging down, the pair will mate.” There may be additionally proof that the consumption of canthardin is used to enhance courtship display- it’s, in different phrases, a sexual stimulant.
Cantharidin has been historically utilized by many cultures as an ointment for gout or arthritis, an aphrodisiac, or a wart remover. The sexual stimulant is usually referred to as Spanish fly as a result of the toxin is derived from a species of the identical title.
Canthardin toxicity is seemingly variable. The striped blister beetle is eaten by frogs who’re resistant to the toxin however retain it of their our bodies; predators who eat the frogs, nonetheless, can be poisoned, together with frog-leg consuming people. The Western Meadowlark, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and Jap Bluebird, nonetheless, eat the striped blister beetle with impunity.