Butterflies appendages

[Jo]

Though we read Bill's note out of context of conversation he and Noles had,
I'm taking a stab at it anyway.  The main point of interest to me is his
conjecture that butterflies don't know their body parts so aren't able to
draw attention to them via sound communication.

The clicks of some nymphalids is communication (perhaps meant to be
understood intraspecifically as an offensive measure) that draws attention
to the butterfly and its advancing flight.  But, more to Bill's point about
their knowledge of body parts, a caterpillar in Central America who is
associated with ants and communicates via sound comes to mind.  To keep the
ants attending it constantly, the caterpillar scrapes two ridged vibratory
papillae over tiny, hard tubercles on its head, producing a sound very
attractive to ants which resonates through the substrate.  The caterpillar
may only be drawing the ants' attention to itself for protection.  Or it
may be advertising its honeydew gland to the ants via sound who in turn may
associate the sound directly with the gland.  The real motive behind the
ants' response might easily be discerned in the lab...


Jo


Bill wrote:
>Noles: I didn't see the program but I think his reference to feet was a
>metaphor. But if youre lookng for convoluted meanings, you'll be glad to
>know that butterflies taste through their feet, feed through their nose,
>hear through their legs, fly with modified gill covers, and breathe
>through a mechanism which has no vertebrate equivalent. The neat part is
>the butterflies don't care & it still works!
>
>Recient scientific research indicates that butterflies don't talk, so
>any names they mght have had for these structures have to be expressed
>in pherenome, which may convey the most poignant emotions but, as a
>language, is not technical and thus is mostly limited to rumor and
>enuendo. I offer this as proof that butterflies don't know their ear
>from their elbow.
>
>any takers? (hah! I didn't think so)