I just came across this interesting AP Article and thought I’d share.
Ants Tricked in Raising Butterflies. Man, I love Biology!
Gives a whole new twist to the old Ugly Duckling stories.
What I found especially fascinating was the fact that the Caterpillars learned to adapt to give off the same sounds as the Queen Ants and thus were able to solicit a wide variety of special treatments from the Nurse ants. That’s pretty impressive!
That is extremely cool.
It would help to underscore the great over-arching coolness of such things, though, if reporters would learn the proper application of terms like “learn.”
Now this is just damn cool.
What’s the rest of the story? That pupa still has to metamorphose…how does it get out of the ant chamber so the butterfly can pop out and fly away?
This is purty cool…I’ve always thought that if there were a Deity in charge, they really outdid the creativity( and sheer ruthlessness) with insects.
From this site, the butterfly has a nice tradition in being named after the Common/European Cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in other bird’s nest:
Yeah, how the hell does it get out of a nest of a bajillion ants? Does it wait until the lights are turned out and make a run for it? Is the ruse all so lovely that it gets carried out on a gilded throne, kisses thrown all around the ant mound?
And while it is in the nest, what does the caterpillar eat? Each species of caterpillar needs its own specific food, not normally found in ant nests. And how do they make sounds?
Well, ants forage for food, one would suppose that this species of caterpillar has adapted to eating whatever the ant larvae normally eat. So whatever the ants are feeding them, that’s what these guys eat. And the butterfly does seem to lay the eggs on specific types of plants, so the larvae are always going to eat that one, but the caterpillar perhaps is more adaptable?
As for sounds… :shrug: same way other insects make sounds i suppose? No clue on that one.
Really tiny guitars.