Old, obscure question.

[Jo]

>   Forgive me if I don't sound very technical, but this question is based on a
>show I saw years ago.  I heard of a type of butterfly larva in Australia that
>enters ant hives and eats the developing grubs.  This caterpillar, if I
>remember, was an orange color, and shapped like a plate with the edges curled
>up.  Does anyone know what the name of this butterfly is?  Is there a good
>webpage with an image of the adult phase?  Thank you for listening.
>
>K. Szoke

======Hi K.
In Australia, many Lycaenidae (like the orange and black-winged Liphyra
brassolis) in the larval stage search out a nest of a green tree ant to eat
its larvae while the ants attack.  It isn't harmed, though, through the
tough skin.  And it molts in a way that resists ant attack. Even the wings
and antennae of the butterfly are covered with thickened scales that pull
loose if an ant bites.  Ain't evolution grand?  The butterfly gets out of
the nest and starts the cycle over again by laying eggs on ant-infested
trees.

Some European Maculinea associate with ants.  During the second (or later?)
instar, a gland develops in the caterpillar that secretes a fluid favored
by ants.  It's during the last instar that the ants actually carry it into
their nest where they eat some of the young.  They get the ants to feed
them by mimicking the begging behavior of ant young, and give up the sweet
fluid in return.

Such Lacaenidae are throughout the continents of tropical and temperate
zones, even islands.  Interesting to note that Blackburn's Blue in Hawaii
lost its gland because there are (were?) no ants on the island.

Jo



Jo Angleberger
W.I.N.E. Administrator
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/nww/nww.html

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