Editing Cantharidin (section)

==Veterinary issues==
Poisoning by ''Epicauta'' species from cantharidin is a significant veterinary concern, especially in horses; species infesting feedstocks depend on region—e.g., ''Epicauta pennsylvanica'' (black blister beetle) in the U.S. midwest; and ''E. occidentalis, temexia, and vittata'' species (striped blister beetles) in the U.S. southwest—where the concentrations of the agent in each can vary substantially.<ref name = veterinary/> Beetles feed on [[weed]]s, and occasionally move into crop fields used to produce livestock feeds (e.g., [[alfalfa]]), where they are found to cluster and find their way into [[hay bale|baled hay]], e.g., a single flake (4–5 in. section<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Rockett J, Bosted S | year = 2015 | title = Veterinary Clinical Procedures in Large Animal Practices | publisher = Cengage Learning | isbn = 978-1305537651 | location = Boston, MA, USA | url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1305537653 | access-date = 14 December 2015 | page = 65}}</ref>) may have several hundred insects, or none at all.<ref name = veterinary/> Horses are very sensitive to the cantharidin produced by beetle infestations: the {{LD50}} for horses is roughly 1&nbsp;mg/kg of the horse's body weight. Horses may be accidentally poisoned when fed bales of fodder with blister beetles in them.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2006/Fall/EquineCT.htm | title = Blister Beetle Poisoning / Cantharidin toxicosis | access-date = 31 December 2010 | archive-date = 26 June 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100626083233/https://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/2006/Fall/EquineCT.htm | url-status = live }}</ref>

[[Great bustard]]s, a strongly [[Polygyny in animals|polygynous]] bird species,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s00265-010-0972-6  |title=Correlates of male mating success in great bustard leks: the effects of age, weight, and display effort |year=2010 | vauthors = Alonso JC, Magaña M, Palacín C, Martín CA |journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |volume=64 |issue=10 |pages=1589–1600|bibcode=2010BEcoS..64.1589A |hdl=10261/76985 |s2cid=8741416 }}</ref> are not immune to the toxicity of cantharidin; they become intoxicated after ingesting blister beetles. However, cantharidin has activity also against parasites that infect them.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bravo C, Bautista LM, García-París M, Blanco G, Alonso JC | title = Males of a strongly polygynous species consume more poisonous food than females | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 9 | issue = 10 | pages = e111057 | year = 2014 | pmid = 25337911 | pmc = 4206510 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0111057 | bibcode = 2014PLoSO...9k1057B | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sánchez-Barbudo IS, Camarero PR, García-Montijano M, Mateo R | title = Possible cantharidin poisoning of a great bustard (Otis tarda) | journal = Toxicon | volume = 59 | issue = 1 | pages = 100–103 | date = January 2012 | pmid = 22001622 | doi = 10.1016/j.toxicon.2011.10.002 | bibcode = 2012Txcn...59..100S | hdl-access = free | hdl = 10261/143513 }}</ref> Great bustards may eat toxic [[blister beetle]]s of the genus ''[[Meloe]]'' to increase the sexual arousal of males.<ref name=Heneberg2016>{{cite journal | vauthors = Heneberg P |title=On Otis tarda and Marquis de Sade: what motivates male Great Bustards to consume Blister Beetles (Meloidae)?  |year=2016 |journal=Journal of Ornithology |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=1123–1125  |doi=10.1007/s10336-016-1369-8|bibcode=2016JOrni.157.1123H |s2cid=17325635 }}</ref>