Fire-Chaser Jewel Beetle

Melanophila acuminata is one of the most extraordinary insect predators of catastrophe — a jewel beetle that has evolved to detect and exploit forest fires. Her thoracic infrared sensors can detect a fire from up to 80 kilometers away, vastly out-resolving any human-built infrared detector of comparable size. When fire is detected, swarms of these beetles fly toward the burning forest. They land on still-smoldering trees, mate immediately, and lay eggs in the freshly burned wood. The larvae eat wood that has been chemically altered by fire and is unattractive to other wood-borers — meaning the fire-chaser larvae have a competitive monopoly on charred timber. The US Air Force funded multi-year research into the jewel beetle's infrared organ during the 1990s as a model for high-sensitivity infrared detection. The beetle's organ uses fluid-filled spheres that thermally expand on contact with infrared photons; the resulting pressure change triggers the nervous system. No human-engineered IR sensor approaches this efficiency.