Toxic Yet Harmless Creature ~ Black Oil Beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus)

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🔽 License the footage here:
1url.cz/Lu666
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Rumours have reached me that the annual fright of the black oil beetle is once again sweeping through the Czech internet. And it scares me just like every year. People, for God's sake! 😬
Yes, oil beetles are poisonous. Their hemolymph (body juice) contains toxic cantharidin, which is supposed to deter birds and other predators. But do you know what you have to do to be in any danger from the poison? You have to eat the oil beetle 🍴
Alarm is therefore spreading especially among moms whose young children could (supposedly) swallow the oil beetle. However, children could also swallow broken glass. Or a drawing pin. Or a yew berry. Do children swallow such things on a daily basis? No, because mothers watch out for it. In the same way, you just have to make sure the children don't eat bugs. You don't need a magnifying glass or extra vigilance - the oil beetles are big and hard to overlook on a walk. Not even our two-year-old Annie overlooked them. We just helped three different oil beetles safely cross the road this weekend 💙
Oil beetles have traditionally been threatened by agricultural intensification in our countryside, so as expected they are an endangered species. They are most commonly encountered in early spring, when egg-filled females search for a suitable place to lay their eggs. If you happen to see an oil beetle, don't touch it, rejoice in any way you like and move on in peace ✌️
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✿ Species
Black oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus)
✿ Location and date
Brno district, Czechia | April 2019
✿ Equipment
Panasonic GH5S
Sigma 18-35
Sigma 105
Laowa 24 Probe
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Black oil beetle | Meloe proscarabaeus | Majka obecná | Schwarzblaue Ölkäfer Maiwurm | méloé printanier | Майка обыкновенная
#europeanwildlife #oilbeetle #meloeproscarabaeus