The article considers the phenomenon of ballistic defaecation by odonate larvae, exhibited by certain Anisoptera but not by any Zygoptera, and explores two possibilities: (1) that ballistic defaecation in Anisoptera may correlate with increased foraging success (the ‘Wudkevich Hypothesis’) by distancing the prey’s alarm pheromone, persisting in the pellet after defaecation, from the larva’s ambush…