Bombardier beetles squirt discharge, force attackers to throw up would-be prey
PARIS: In Tim Burton’s classic comedy Beetlejuice, the toxic title character can escape from his inferno only if someone pronounces his name three times in a row. The real-world bombardier beetle escapes from its purgatory — the belly of a predator — by squirting the real thing: boiling-hot pulses of noxious beetle juice, forcing an attacker to vomit up its would-be prey, researchers reported on Wednesday. The beetles just shake it off and walk away, according to experiments conducted in Japan and chronicled in the
British Royal Society journal Biology Letters. “All 16 beetles that the toads vomited up were still alive and active,” lead researcher Shinji Sugiura, a professor at Kobe University, said. “Fifteen of those beetles survived for at least two weeks,” with one living more than 18 months -- probably longer than that toad that tried to eat it, he said. More than 600 species of the bombardier beetle marry chemical warfare with pinpoint firepower to ward off their enemies. CAESAREA, ISRAEL: A 1,800-year-old mosaic of toga-clad men dating back to the Roman era has been unearthed in Israel, archaeologists said on Thursday.
The mosaic was discovered during the excavation of a building from the Byzantine period — some 300 years younger than the mosaic it was on top of — in the coastal city of Caesarea.
“The surprise was actually that we found two beautiful monuments from the glorious days of Caesarea,” Peter Gendelman, co-director of excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said of the building and mosaic.
Caesarea was a vibrant Roman metropolis built in honour of Emperor Augustus Caesar by King Herod, who ruled Judea from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC.
The excavated portion of the mosaic, which the antiquities authority said was 3.5 metres by 8 metres in size, depicts three toga-clad men, as well as geometric patterns and an inscription in Greek, which is damaged.
If the mosaic came from a mansion, the figures could have been the owners, or if it was a public building, they may have been the mosaic’s donors or members of the city council, Gendelman said.
The mosaic was of a high artistic standard, with about 12,000 stones per square metre, the antiquities authority said.
Israel is undertaking the largest conservation and reconstr uction project in the country in the Caesarea National Park, the antiquities team said. The project aims at reconstructing a Crusaders-era bridge.