Insects are among nature's most successful experts at chemical warfare. To protect themselves against enemies, they secrete many irritating substances. Certain grasshoppers and butterflies, for example, fight their foes with toxins that they accumulate by munching on milkweed plants. Moths pick up noxious alkaloids from other plants. Now it appears that some insects have gone one step further. They have managed to incorporate into their arsenal a chemical made by man.
The latest advance in insect weaponry came to light while a team of Cornell University scientists was studying a flightless Southern grasshopper called Romalea microptera. During egg-laying periods, when the...
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