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Blister beetle Temporal range:
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Hycleus lugens | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Superfamily: | Tenebrionoidea |
Family: | Meloidae Gyllenhaal, 1810 |
Subfamilies | |
Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their toxicity to would-be predators.