Aposematic Insects The Key to New Defense Mechanisms and...

Aposematic insects can be essential to the discovery of plants with biologically active chemical compounds. The reason being that: a vast majority of these insects have been located on the leaves of biologically active plants. In other words, one can conclude that aposematic insects may be consuming these plants. To test whether aposematic insects are consuming biologically active plants, one can test for chemicals foreign to the insects anatomy. Put in another way, one can locate plants with active chemical compounds through the composition of aposematic insects. Non-aposematic insects could also be found on the same biologically active plants as aposematic insects due to competition. According to an experiment conducted to illustrate bio-prospecting through aposematic insects, non-aposematic insects were found on 80% of plants with active chemical compounds and 100% on inactive plants, whereas aposematic insects were found on 90% of the active plants and 40% on the other. From this data, one can conclude that non-aposematic and aposematic insects were competing because one of the populations dominated the other. Like the gerbils of the sand, non-aposematic insects may prefer a habitat where the amount of competition is minimized; in other words, they may be foragers. Although competition between the insect populations may be possible, it is also possible that non-aposematic and aposematic insects may be co-existing. The reason being that: the secondary metabolites