ArticleScientific reports2016
Lepidopteran defence droplets - a composite physical and chemical weapon against potential predators.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chemical Secretion Use Varies Among Species but Lacks a Straightforward Relationship With Other Defenses in Neotropical Opiliones.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Characterization of Chemical Defensive Behavior and Associated Glands in the Destructive Invasive Longhorn BeetleInsects · 2026Article
- Outbreak of caterpillars (Lepidoptera) in Valle de Caracas, Venezuela.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Cardenolides in the defensive fluid of adult large milkweed bugs have differential potency on vertebrate and invertebrate predator NaRoyal Society open science · 2024Article
- Production, composition, and mode of action of the painful defensive venom produced by a limacodid caterpillar,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Caterpillar Venom: A Health Hazard of the 21st Century.Biomedicines · 2020Review
- Deletion of biosynthetic genes, specific SNP patterns and differences in transcript accumulation cause variation in hydroxynitrile glucoside content in barley cultivars.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Repurposing of Glycine-Rich Proteins in Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in the Lone-Star Tick (Frontiers in physiology · 2019Article
- No evidence of quantitative signal honesty across species of aposematic burnet moths (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae).Journal of evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Sex differences but no evidence of quantitative honesty in the warning signals of six-spot burnet moths (Zygaena filipendulae L.).Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2018Article
- Review
- How to fight multiple enemies: target-specific chemical defences in an aposematic moth.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Spatial separation of the cyanogenic β-glucosidase ZfBGD2 and cyanogenic glucosides in the haemolymph ofRoyal Society open science · 2017Article
- A Cyanide-Induced 3-Cyanoalanine Nitrilase in the Cyanide-Assimilating Bacterium Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes Strain CECT 5344.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Insects often release noxious substances for their defence. Larvae of Zygaena filipendulae (Lepidoptera) secrete viscous and cyanogenic glucoside-containing droplets, whose effectiveness was associated with their physical and chemical properties. The droplets glued mandibles and legs of potential predators together and immobilised them. Droplets were characterised by a matrix of an aqueous solution of glycine-rich peptides (H-WG11-NH2) with significant amounts of proteins and glucose. Among the proteins, defensive proteins such as protease inhibitors, proteases and oxidases were abundant. The neurotoxin β-cyanoalanine was also found in the droplets. Despite the presence of cyanogenic glucosides, which release toxic hydrogen cyanide after hydrolysis by a specific β-glucosidase, the only β-glucosidase identified in the droplets (ZfBGD1) was inactive against cyanogenic glucosides. Accordingly, droplets did not release hydrogen cyanide, unless they were mixed with specific β-glucosidases present in the Zygaena haemolymph. Droplets secreted onto the cuticle hardened and formed sharp crystalline-like precipitates that may act as mandible abrasives to chewing predators. Hardening followed water evaporation and formation of antiparallel β-sheets of the peptide oligomers. Consequently, after mild irritation, Zygaena larvae deter predators by viscous and hardening droplets that contain defence proteins and β-cyanoalanine. After severe injury, droplets may mix with exuding haemolymph to release hydrogen cyanide.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.