Ha, not quite that dramatic, but in just the last few years I’ve been seeing this large black beetle (over an inch long in many cases) with a long segmented abdomen. Never saw anything like it a few years ago, which makes me wonder if it’s an invasive species or migrating to larger territory. Google gave me surprisingly little info about the little buggers, other than the basics.). They appear in very late summer or early fall, like now.
I did learn why they’re called “oil beetles”. I had initially assumed it was because they are inky black in color, dark as the darkest black.
But it’s actually because, if disturbed, they secrete a very toxic substance that looks like oil, that will cause blisters on human skin (they’re also called blister beetles for this reason). I read that eating them can actually be fatal! (Not sure what the LD50 is, but fortunately they’re not delicious looking enough to find out).
Who else has these buggers around, and anybody get blistered by their toxic oil? Stories please if you have them.
Cantharidin is the supposedly aphrodisiac chemical found in Spanish fly, which is also a type of blister beetle. Maybe you want to take a look into the LD50 after all?
I haven’t had any contact with them, but I’ve gotten a couple of bad cases of blisters from rove beetles here in Taiwan. Both times, I wasn’t aware of the beetle being on me, but when I had the nasty blisters I went to see a dermatologist who diagnosed them.