During a forest fire, most insects and animals flee in all directions, flying, and running, crawling and using every possible means to avoid the deadly flames. But there are exceptions, like some spices of beetles.
Some scientists believe people can capitalize on their behavior and the body parts they use to detect fire or sense chemicals in the environment.
Scientific news from Germany
Nowadays, group of scientists in the University of Bonn are working hard to invent sensors like the detection sensors in the black beetles which can detect the fire tens of kilometers far from the flame, those scientists are looking for that invention to help in preventing forests fires.
Researcher kloka from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn confirms that some spices of beetles can hear the fires, also he say that he is trying to study those spices to figure out how it avoids fire and how it detects the emitted Infrared ray from that fire?
Under supervision of Professor Helmut Schmitz (University of Bonn), kloka concentrated on the black beetle which lives in forests and don’t runaway from fires, it searches for it. Its larva feeds on burned wood.
In their fire-seeking frenzy, flying into flames or crawling along still-smoldering trees, the beetles may be trying to beat competitors to weakened or dying trees so that they are the first to plant their eggs into them, researchers believe.
To do that, though, the beetles must be able to find burning trees and get to them quickly. While it has been known for decades that these insects have infrared detectors that allow them to sense the heat of fires, new research by scientists indicates they also possess highly sensitive detectors in their antennas that allow them to sense minute amounts of volatile substances in smoke from burning wood.
Scientists say that the beetle possesses highly sensitive detectors in its antenna that allow it to sense the volatile substances in smoke from burning wood.
The research team had succeeded to recognize how these systems work as they are willing to mimic it. Professor Schmitz says: 'we are cooperating with researchers in biology to build micro mechanic systems which are similar to what is in the beetles.'
Another researcher Dr. Stefan Schutz of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and colleagues say this highly sensitive smoke detection, coupled with their heat sensors, appears to be part of a system that allows the beetles to sense fires and home in on them from distances of more than 30 miles away.
''There is a complex interplay with the infrared system that we do not fully understand,'' Dr. Schutz said, also he added ''but we think detecting the smoke may be an early indication to the beetle that there is a fire in the area.''
''The beetles are often found in hilly places where there may not be the clear line of sight to a fire that is needed by their heat detectors'' he said:
E. Richard Hoebeke, a beetle expert in the entomology department at Cornell University said the German work was ''new and exciting'' but also showed how much people had to learn about insects.
'Think about how little we know of insects with incredibly sensitive and complex sensory mechanisms.' Mr. Hoebeke asked.
Dr. Daniel Young, director of the insect research collection at the University of Wisconsin's entomology department, said many beetle species found in the United States and Canada exhibited fire-seeking behavior, looking for stressed or dying trees in which to plant their eggs, so their larvae could develop in or under the bark.
Dr. William G. Evans, an entomologist who studied the insects 30 years ago as a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said he was gratified that scientists were continuing to study the beetles, but not too surprised by their findings. ''All insects have olfactory organs in their antennas,'' he said, ''and you would almost expect the beetles to detect smoke.''
In earlier research, Dr. Evans discovered that Melanophila acuminata had a pair of thoracic pit organs that were sensitive infrared receptors, guiding the insect to fires.
