The Spanish fly is an aposematic emerald-green beetle in the blister beetle family (Meloidae). It is distributed across Eurasia.
Spanish fly
An aggregation of Spanish fly adults in Siberia. The behaviour and their toxicity suggest that their conspicuous coloration is aposematic.
Collecting Cantharides, 19th century
Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their toxicity to would-be predators.
Blister beetle
at Mumbai
Ivy bee (Colletes hederae), carrying parasitic triungulins of Stenoria analis
Black blister beetle, Epicauta pennsylvanica (Meloinae: Epicautini)