There’s a patent war pending over the invention of the cyanide bomb.
Zygaena caterpillars, which deter hungry birds by storing the poison in their flesh, make cyanide using the exact same cellular machinery as their host plants, scientists report April 12 in Nature Communications. It still isn’t clear which came up with the recipe first, but the discovery is the first known example of organisms from entirely different kingdoms evolving the same biochemical treachery.
Some plants, such as bird’s-foot trefoil, concoct cyanide bombs that are trip-wired to blow up in the mouths of nibbling animals. When a slug or insect chews a leaf, ingredients that are kept in different compartments in the plant’s cells combine to form cyanide, poisoning the animal.