Nature Production / Bombardier Beetle (Pheropsophus jessoensis) protecting itself by ejecting a boiling, noxious chemical spray, Nagasaki, Japan.

Konrad Wothe / Slow motion clip of Wood ants (Formica rufa) on anthill, squirting formic acid to repel threat, Bavaria, Germany, April.

Albert Lleal / Orpiment, a sulphide of arsenic, from Greece

Konrad Wothe / Red Wood Ant (Formica rufa) colony reacting in defensive behavior by spraying formic acid from a gland in rear of their abdomens, Sweden

Mark Moffett / Phantasmal Poison Dart Frog (Epipedobates tricolor) near Cuenca, Ecuador this frog exudes epibatidine, a chemical with analgesic qualities two hundred times as powerful as morphine

John Downer Productions / Spotted skunk does handstand as initial warning then sprays out stench if warning not heeded (Resolution restriction - image digitised from film, 'Weird Nature' tv series)

Ashley Cooper / Sulphur which has to be extracted from the raw bitumen from tar sands piled up in huge mountains by the Syncrude upgrader plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. August 2012

Ashley Cooper / Sulphur which has to be extracted from the raw bitumen from tar sands piled up in huge mountains by the Syncrude upgrader plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. August 2012

Ashley Cooper / Sulpher which has to be extracted from the raw bitumen from tar sands piled up in huge mountains by the Syncrude upgrader plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. August 2012

Ashley Cooper / Rare native White clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) killed by an illegal chemical spill on the river Mint near Kendal Cumbria UK. June 2004

Ashley Cooper / Rare native White clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) killed by an illegal chemical spill on the river Mint near Kendal Cumbria UK. June 2004

Ashley Cooper / Rare native White clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) killed by an illegal chemical spill on the river Mint near Kendal Cumbria UK. June 2004