Firechaser Beetles Infrared Senses micro-lesson

Welcome to lesson on Animal Superpowers: Extraordinary Senses. This lesson is about the fire chaser beetle and how it can detect infrared radiation. Fire chaser beetles can detect fires from hundreds of miles away and chase fire like their name says. But why? Trees that have been burnt have lost their natural defenses that protect them from intruding insects so that these fire chaser beetles search for these trees and when they find them, they can safely lay their eggs inside. Fire chaser beetles have 70 to 90 tiny dome-like sacks on their underside. When they are flying, sometimes they look like they wave their arms in the air. This is to allow these little infrared detecting insects to detect infrared radiation. Inside each sack is a hair-like sensor called a dendric tip that gets deformed when it senses heat or infrared radiation. Infrared radiation is a wave on the invisible light spectrum. Invisible to us but fire chaser beetles can detect it, and these 70 to 90 sacks on the fire chaser beetle can pick up these waves traveling long distances. Humans cannot see infrared light, but we can detect it with instruments. Fire chaser beetles can detect it with their sensors from very, very long distances. Here, you can see that the infrared wavelength is fatter than the other waves on the visible light spectrum. Fire chaser beetles can detect these waves and seek out burnt trees.