Question

This bombardier beetle is spraying a boiling hot liquid that contains irritating chemicals, used as a defense mechanism against its enemies. The beetle stores two sets of chemicals separately in its glands. Using what you learned about chemistry in this chapter, propose a possible explanation for why the beetle is not harmed by the chemicals its stores and what causes the explosive discharge.

Short answer

The bombardier beetle is an insect that sprays hot liquid along with chemicals to attack enemies. The two sets of chemicals are non-irritants that are present in the bee. While spraying, both the chemicals get mixed to form a new chemical that irritates the enemies.

Step-by-step solution

Description of chemical defense

The insects that are prone to predation use chemical defense. Naturally, the insect body has a gland to store chemicals. Plants use chemical substances for their defense too. The best example of chemical defense is venom.

Chemical reaction

Various chemical bonds are made and destroyed in the process to form products in a chemical reaction. Different types of reactants react to form new kinds of products.

There are different types of chemical reactions, such as forward and reverse reactions. The forward reaction produces products from the reactants. In reverse reactions, the products react back to give the reactants.

Defense of bombardier beetle

The bombardier beetle contains two different chemicals in a separate chamber in a gland.These two chemicals are non-irritant separately. The two chemicals are hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide.

Both the chemicals react with each other to form oxygen gas, heat, and water. The hot liquid, along with foul-smelling gas, is sprayed on the enemies to avoid predation.

However, the beetle’s abdomen chamber is not hurt due to the high heating reaction. The abdominal chamber walls have the capacity for rapid cooling after this thermodynamic reaction.