Parasitic butterflies dupe hosts with ant music


	Parasitic butterflies dupe hosts with ant music
balthazarus
2-6-2009 11:01 AM
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tags:
biology
balthazarus says:
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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/75b778d9-5754-4faf-b34d-12d06f882d77/4521DCB3-BF2B-4AB1-8899-3E9B102D1A1C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html"><H1>
Parasitic butterflies dupe hosts with ant music
</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newscientist.com/img/7BD1F205-3FC8-4B21-BC11-20D4429607FD" alt="Caterpillar inside a red ant nest, being fed regurgitations by a worker ant (Courtesy of Jeremy Thomas)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">the infant forms of blue butterflies can belt out a convincing cover version of a tune favoured by red ants - which show their appreciation by protecting and feeding the butterfly larvae.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html"><I>Maculinea rebeli</I></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">though <A target="ns" href=" http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/39487">threatened with extinction</A>  - impersonate red ants so faithfully that worker ants worship them as if they were queens, caring for the developing caterpillar even at the expense of their own lives.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html"> the caterpillars descend to the forest floor and secrete ant-like chemicals</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">colony, workers sacrificed their own kin to save the butterfly larvae - much as they would if a queen ant were threatened. "There must be some form of communication by the butterflies that make the ants think they're royal, and at the same time we were pretty damn sure they weren't by chemicals</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">Using miniature microphones</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">captured the tunes made by queen and worker ants</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">Auditory analysis showed similarities in key acoustic features of the ant and butterfly sound</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16543-parasitic-butterflies-dupe-hosts-with-ant-music.html">attraction</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/4521DCB3-BF2B-4AB1-8899-3E9B102D1A1C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>
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