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Hence, 3-NPA inhibits the tricarboxylic acid cycle. This inhibition leads to neurodegeneration with symptoms similar to those caused by Huntington's disease. [15] Since leaf beetles produce high concentrations of 3-NPA esters, a powerful chemical defense against a wide range of different predators is obvious.
Plants have evolved many defense mechanisms against insect herbivory in the 350 million years in which they have co-evolved. Such defenses can be broadly classified into two categories: (1) permanent, constitutive defenses, and (2) temporary, inducible defenses. [1]
Among the insects, many moths turn sharply, fall, or perform a powered dive in response to the sonar clicks of bats. [76] Among fish, the stickleback follows a zigzagging path, often doubling back erratically, when chased by a fish-eating merganser duck.
Viburnum lesquereuxii leaf with insect damage; Dakota Sandstone (Cretaceous) of Ellsworth County, Kansas. Scale bar is 10 mm. Knowledge of herbivory in geological time comes from three sources: fossilized plants, which may preserve evidence of defense (such as spines) or herbivory-related damage; the observation of plant debris in fossilised animal feces; and the structure of herbivore mouthparts.
The bacterium Klebsiella aerogenes produces the volatile 2,3-butanediol, which modulates interactions between plants, pathogens, and insects. [48] When maize plants are grown in a soil culture containing the bacterium or the plants are inoculated with the bacterium, the maize is more resistant to the fungus Setosphaeria turcica . [ 48 ]
A worker can explode suicidally and aggressively as an ultimate act of defense, an ability it has in common with several other species in this genus and a few other insects. [1] The ant has an enormously enlarged mandibular gland, many times the size of other ants, which produces adhesive secretions for defense. [2]
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Insects accordingly employ multiple defensive strategies, including camouflage, mimicry, toxicity and active defense. [138] Many insects rely on camouflage to avoid being noticed by their predators or prey. [139] It is common among leaf beetles and weevils that feed on wood or vegetation. [138] Stick insects mimic the forms of sticks and leaves ...