chemical defense of an ozaenine bombardier beetle from new guinea

We had occasion recently to study 3 live specimens of Pseudozaena orientalis opaca, an ozaenine carabid beetle (subfamily Paussinae, tribe Ozaenini) from New Guinea, and report here on the biology and chemistry of its defensive spray mechanism. A number of New World ozaenines had previously been studied chemically and shown to be “bombardiers” that discharge a hot quinonoid mixture (Aneshansley et al. 1969, 1983; Eisner and Aneshansley 1982; Eisner et al. 1977; Roach et al. 1979). Pseudozaena proved no exception.