Alice in Scienceland! Caterpillar puffs nicotine to ward off spiders

Source: LiveScience

Alice in Scienceland! Caterpillar puffs nicotine to ward off spiders

Joseph Brownstein LiveScience

2 hours ago

Ripped from the pages of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," scientists have discovered a smoking caterpillar of sorts.

While this find may not push Alice's hookah-smoking insect from its psychedelic pedestal, this caterpillar is pretty snazzy, as it can use nicotine to ward off hungry wolf spiders.

The researchers found a gene in hornworm caterpillars that allows them to puff nicotine out through their spiracles (tiny holes in their sides), from the tobacco they consume, as a warning to their would-be predators. Researchers called this tactic "defensive halitosis."

"It's really a story about how an insect that eats a plant co-opts the plant for its own defense," said study researcher Ian Baldwin, a professor at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany.

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Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/alice-scienceland-caterpillar-puffs-nicotine-ward-spiders-2D11820936