butterfly - ant evolutionary arms race

Hi Brenna,
There are quite a few species that exhibit this kind of behaviour. It is common amongst the blue butterflies, just one reason why they are threatened. Apparently it is called myrmecophily (thank god for the wiki). Here is an even weirder critter;Link to image (asks for password)

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Site the excerpt is taken from

quote:

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British oil beetles; so called because of the oil they secrete from their joints to deter predators, have one of the most extraordinary life cycles of any British insect. A female adult oil beetle burrows in sandy areas close to a solitary bee colony. Within the burrow she will lay about 1000 eggs which take one year to develop. Once hatched the larvae are very active and louse like, and for good reason. In order to survive and reach maturity they must immediately find a bee and hitch a ride on its back. To have the best chance of meeting a bee the larvae climb up flower stems often lying in wait within a flower itself. A bee collecting pollen for its own nest, may unwittingly become covered in the oil beetle larvae, secured by their specially-adapted hooked feet. Once in the bee's nest the larva disembarks and set about eating the bee's eggs. Following this meal, the oil beetle larva develops into a more regular grub like stage which then consumes the stored pollen. The larvae pupate within the bee nest until the following year, when they emerge as adult oil beetles ready to mate and start the whole cycle again.

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Now that is just bizarre. I would imagine that a similar "arms race" could be detected in this set-up as well.Edited by AdminNWR, : changed image to link (since it asks for password)Edited by AdminModulous, : added a link to the site the excerpt comes from, since they don't seem to like direct linking to their images.

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Mutate and Survive

Cheers for sorting that out guys.

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Mutate and Survive

Here is a great excerpt from "Life in the Undergrowth", presented by the peerless David Attenborough. It talks about alcon blues, and their relationship with ants. It then goes on to describe the activities of another ant-nest interloper; an ichneumon wasp, one of the same insects that so disturbed Darwin. Things start to get a bit nasty about half way through...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3OQPT3qbU
(Hope this link works!)

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Mutate and Survive

Oh, that is seriously nasty. The bit about parasites causing the ants to climb up a blade of grass to await predation is especially creepy; cordyceps fungi do a similar thing. Yuck. Reminds me of a David Cronenberg movie.

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Mutate and Survive