Hawaiian Insects

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carabid gas Thurston

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Escape Rd. near Thurston lava tube, May 14 2004, at night. I had just caught a carabid beetle (Blackburnia hawaiiensis) from a Clermontia leaf and dropped it in the jar, when it got all smoky inside. I think some kind of defensive chemical reacted with the ammonia in the jar; I could smell it when I held a beetle in my hand, but there wasn't any smoke.