Today I Learned …

One species of beaded lacewing (an insect whose larvae prey on termites) has a particularly ingenious way of stunning and killing its prey: it farts on them. The larva raises its tail toward the termite’s head and releases a chemical which paralyses the termite and kills it. This chemical does not affect any other species of insect, including the lacewing itself, so this species of lacewing has evolved to produce a very specific chemical fart perfectly designed for its larval life inside the nest of its prey, one of the very few fatal farts known to science. (From Does It Fart? The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence, by Nick Caruso and Dani Rabaiotti)