Cantharidin production in a blister beetle.

Cantharidin, a potent defensive chemical, is present in all ten life stages of the blister beetle Epicauta funebris. The first five larval stages accumulate cantharidin as they feed and grow in size. When disturbed, they exude cantharidin in a milky oral fluid, not in hemolymph which adult beetles reflexively discharge from leg joints. Two subsequent larval stages and the pupa do not feed, grow, regurgitate, or change in their defensive reserves (110 micrograms cantharidin/insect, regardless of sex). Adult beetles kept in isolation for 60-90 d exhibit a pronounced sexual dimorphism in cantharidin production: the male biosynthesizes about 17 mg of the toxin, representing 10% of his live weight, whereas the female actually loses most of her defensive reserves. But in the wild a female beetle repeatedly acquires cantharidin as copulatory gifts from her mates.