Lizard defense

Like pit vipers and wall lizards, various mammals are also sensitive to a predator s scent. Oftentimes, their best defense is retreat, and so frightened deer and squirrels withdraw quickly when they... 

Defensive Compounds. The developmental stages of fireflies are poisonous due to the presence of steroidal pyrones called lucibufagins. Recently it became evident that exotic reptiles and amphibians from habitats without the poisonous fireflies, e.g. the Australian lizard Pogona, are killed immediately if they ingest just one firefly. 

Insects offer endless opportunities for experiments with defense secretions. For a review, see Eisner et al. 2005. Upon gentle contact with a forceps insects will release defense secretions. Keep the insect that just has released the defense secretion in a vial with a wire screen cover, or in a tiny wire cage of the type honey bee queens are shipped in through the mail. Observe responses by other insects or predators such as spiders, lizards, frogs, birds, or small rodents. 

This scorpion is considered to be the most venomous species of scorpion in Africa. Even though this species has small pinchers, their main means of defense is spraying venom on prey and enemies. In the wild the Black Spitter feeds on lizards and small insects. 

Johnson, C. R., 1975, Defensive display behavior in some Australian and Papuan-New Guinean pygopodid lizards, boid, cohrbrid, and elapid snakes, Zool. J. linn. Soc-Lond.. 56 265-282. 

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