Nature & Environment
Why These Parasitic Butterflies 'Talk' Like Ants
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Oct 29, 2014 10:22 AM EDT
It turns out that ants aren't the only insects that inhabit their own nests. Scientists have found how a species of butterfly manages to infiltrate ant nests and spends most of its life there as an unwanted guest.
The butterflies in question are Maculinea butterflies, which infiltrate the nests of Myrmica ants. In order to evade the ants and prevent them from attacking, the butterflies mimic the sounds produced by the ants themselves.
"Acoustic signals convey quite complex information, not only between worker ants while outside the colony, for example during foraging, but also within the nest and between castes," said Francesca Barbero, the lead researcher of the new study, in a news release. "We aimed at understanding whether some ant social parasites, such as butterfly larvae, could interfere with their host ant communication system."
The researchers recorded and analyzed sound signals emitted by larvae and pupae of the butterflies and by the queens and workers of the host ants. They found similarities in the patterns between butterfly parasites and ant host's acoustic signals.
The butterflies deposit their eggs onto the leaves, or buds, of one specific plant. There, the newly hatched butterflies gorge themselves before dropping to the ground and waiting to be ferried into a nest by a worker ant. These butterfly caterpillars then "beg" like baby ants by secreting similar chemicals used by ant larva, fooling the worker ants. In fact, the researchers found that these parasites were sometimes fed more and given more attention that the actual ant larvae.
"We hope our findings will boost research on acoustic communication in social parasites of ants, and bring about significant advances in our understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying the origin, evolution and stabilization of host-parasite relationships," said Barbero.
The findings will be presented at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
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First Posted: Oct 29, 2014 10:22 AM EDT
It turns out that ants aren't the only insects that inhabit their own nests. Scientists have found how a species of butterfly manages to infiltrate ant nests and spends most of its life there as an unwanted guest.
The butterflies in question are Maculinea butterflies, which infiltrate the nests of Myrmica ants. In order to evade the ants and prevent them from attacking, the butterflies mimic the sounds produced by the ants themselves.
"Acoustic signals convey quite complex information, not only between worker ants while outside the colony, for example during foraging, but also within the nest and between castes," said Francesca Barbero, the lead researcher of the new study, in a news release. "We aimed at understanding whether some ant social parasites, such as butterfly larvae, could interfere with their host ant communication system."
The researchers recorded and analyzed sound signals emitted by larvae and pupae of the butterflies and by the queens and workers of the host ants. They found similarities in the patterns between butterfly parasites and ant host's acoustic signals.
The butterflies deposit their eggs onto the leaves, or buds, of one specific plant. There, the newly hatched butterflies gorge themselves before dropping to the ground and waiting to be ferried into a nest by a worker ant. These butterfly caterpillars then "beg" like baby ants by secreting similar chemicals used by ant larva, fooling the worker ants. In fact, the researchers found that these parasites were sometimes fed more and given more attention that the actual ant larvae.
"We hope our findings will boost research on acoustic communication in social parasites of ants, and bring about significant advances in our understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying the origin, evolution and stabilization of host-parasite relationships," said Barbero.
The findings will be presented at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone