Meanings
- uncountablechemistryA defensive compound secreted by the sunburst diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus).
Two major volatile components of this secretion are steroids; cybisterone (structure 7) constitutes about 20% of the volatiles, and a new steroid, mirasorvone, about 50%.
1998 March 17, J Meinwald, “Mirasorvone: A masked 20-ketopregnane from the defensive secretion of a diving beetle (Thermonectus marmoratus)”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 95, number 6, page 27331 more example
In one particularly beautiful dytiscid, the speckled Thermonectus marmoratus, the secretion contains two steroids, cybisterone (74) and mirasorvone (75). The former compound occurs in other dytiscids as well, but mirasorvone, an 18-oxygenated steroid, is not known from other insects.
2005, Thomas Eisner, Secret Weapons: Defenses of Insects, Spiders, Scorpions, and Other Many-legged Creatures
Origin
Mira + Sorvino + -one. Named after American actress Mira Sorvino. Coined by American entymologist Thomas Eisner. Eisner chose to name the secretion after Sorvino, in memory of the good times that Eisner had training Sovino as an ersatz etymologist, for her role in the 1997 U.S. horror film Mimic.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
mirasorvone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mirasorvone
“mirasorvone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mirasorvone. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mirasorvone,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mirasorvone.
Source: mirasorvone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.