article_snippet.sent: Researchers found the bombardier beetle (pictured) mimics a machine gun by mixing chemicals in an internal 'reaction chamber'
article_snippet.sent: A beetle with a machine gun built into its rear end sounds like something from a comic or sci-fi film - or the stuff of nightmares.
article_snippet.sent: But researchers have discovered the Bombardier beetle mimics this powerful weapon by mixing chemicals in an internal 'reaction chamber' in the Bombardier beetle mimics stomach.
article_snippet.sent: When threatened, the diminutive bug can then repeatedly fire streams of foul-smelling liquid from the diminutive bug rear, complete with 'gun smoke'.
article_snippet.sent: Many beetles secrete foul-smelling or bad-tasting chemicals from Many beetles abdomens to ward off predators, but bombardier beetles take bombardier beetles a step further.
article_snippet.sent: When threatened, bombardier beetles combine chemicals in an explosive chamber in bombardier beetles abdomen to simultaneously heat and propel bombardier beetles defensive load as a boiling hot spray.
article_snippet.sent: Wendy Moore, from the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona, has published a paper along with Wendy Moore team that not only reveals the beetle's firing apparatus in never-before-seen detail, but also solves a long-standing mystery of how the animals achieve the animals incredible rapid-fire capabilities. '
article_snippet.sent: Understanding how these beetles produce - and survive - repetitive explosions could provide new design principles for technologies such as blast mitigation and propulsion,' Wendy Moore said.
article_snippet.sent: Eric Arndt Christine Ortiz teamed up with Wendy Moore to study the anatomy of the beetle's reaction chamber, which is constructed of cuticle, a composite of chitin, proteins and waxes.
article_snippet.sent: The material, which also makes up the exoskeleton of insects, protects the beetle from the toxic chemicals, high temperatures and high pressures during explosions.
article_snippet.sent: The research, including video footage (shown above) not only reveals the beetle's firing apparatus in never-before-seen detail, but also solves a long-standing mystery of how the bugs achieve the bugs rapid-fire capabilities .
article_snippet.sent: The mechanism of the bombardier beetle's spray pulsation had not been understood because previous studies, relying on external observations, could not probe exactly what happens inside the reaction chamber of the chemical gun.
article_snippet.sent: African bombardier beetles can accurately hit targets in any direction.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers at Cornell University snapped another type of Bombardier beetle, Stenaptinus insignis' attack in 1999, to reveal Researchers at Cornell University use the explosive defensive mechanism to buy time when Researchers at Cornell University are under attack.
article_snippet.sent: The beetle is quite vulnerable on the ground because unlike most insects such as bees and flies, The beetle can't take off instantly.
article_snippet.sent: This means that the slow process of unfurling This wings could cost the insect This life if under attack from ants, for example.
article_snippet.sent: The chemicals are stored separately in the creature's abdomen and then combine explosively, explaining why The chemicals are ejected at such high speed and at 100 C. 'Twenty-five years ago, a team of scientists from Cornell University and MIT discovered that each blast from the bombardier beetle is actually a series of extraordinarily fast micro-pulses,' Assistant Professor Moore said. '
article_snippet.sent: To investigate this hypothesis, Previous researchers directly observed the internal dynamics of spray pulsation in live Brachinus elongatulus beetles, a type of bombardier beetle, which is found throughout southern Arizona.
article_snippet.sent: Of 500 beetles, Previous researchers were able to record 30 discharges from 14 individuals.
article_snippet.sent: This was enough to provide high-definition, high-speed video of what happens inside a bombardier beetle's reaction chamber when a bombardier beetle's reaction chamber goes off.
article_snippet.sent: All guns blazing: 'Twenty-five years ago, a team of scientists from Cornell University and MIT discovered that each blast from the bombardier beetle is actually a series of extraordinarily fast micro-pulses,' Assistant Professor Moore said, which led to the machine gun analogy.
article_snippet.sent: We also discovered that the reaction chamber's anatomy varies between female and male beetles.'
article_snippet.sent: While it is still not completely clear why it might be beneficial to the beetle to have a pulsed delivery, Assistant Professor Moore suspects that dividing the spray into very short, rapid pulses allows the beetle to sustain the energy of the blast and the blast small body size at the same time. '
article_snippet.sent: By having a pulsed delivery, female and male beetles produce a relatively large amount of defensive spray, which female and male beetles can aim precisely and with great force and speed,' Assistant Professor Moore said. '
article_snippet.sent: When threatened, the beetle repeatedly fires streams of liquid from the beetle rear, complete with 'gun smoke'.
article_snippet.sent: The expulsion of fluid is shown in the images above, which come from a 1999 study that found another bug, Stenaptinus insignis, uses Stenaptinus weapon to 'buy time' when under attack because when under attack can't fly away .
highlights_snippet.sent: Bombardier beetle mimics machine gun using chemicals in Bombardier beetle mimics machine gun stomach .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: It 'pulses' repeatedly from the beetle's rear - and the bug can even aim .