Butterflies of the World - Lifecycle, Ecology, Taxonomy, Conservation, Photography, Butterfly Holidays, Photo Galleries, Book Reviews and more.........
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
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Weirdest caterpillar on Earth ?
Caterpillars come in some strange shapes, but there can be few creatures more weird-looking than this moth caterpillar ( family Limacodidae ) from French Guiana. Note that this photo does not depict a group of caterpillars - it is a single caterpillar which has enormous hairy limb-like lateral extensions to each segment !
Photograph copyright © Stéphane Brûlé. www.guianensis.fr
 
Click here for more amazing caterpillars !
 
 
Plants that trick butterflies !
Caterpillars of Cattle Heart butterflies ( Parides ) from South America feed on Aristolochia vines, but some vines can defend themselves by only "permitting" the butterflies to lay a small number of eggs. If extra eggs are laid, the leaf around the egg dies, and the dead tissue drops to the ground, carrying the egg with it !
A similar trick is played by Passiflora vines, which produce stipules ( small false leaves ) at the base of leaf stems, that induce egg laying by some species of Heliconius butterflies. A day or two later the stipules drop off, carrying the eggs with them. Some other Passiflora vines produce tiny tubercles on the stipules that mimic Heliconius eggs. Any butterfly visiting the plant sees the false eggs and is misled into thinking that the plant is already overladen with eggs, so is inhibited from adding more.
 
Heliconius erato. Some Heliconius species can be fooled into laying their eggs on stipules
( small false leaves ) produced by Passiflora plants. The plants then shed the stipules, causing the eggs to drop to the ground.

If the plants failed to produce stipules the butterflies would lay on the leaves, and the resulting larvae would defoliate the plants. This is one of many defences used by plants to protect their foliage from being consumed.

 
   
 
Wings that can hear !

Some butterflies can detect sound, using "ears" on the underside of their wings. These microscopic funnel-shaped ears are covered with a very thin membrane that vibrates in response to high frequency sound. The ear is only present in certain butterfly families. Some scientists believe that all early butterflies were nocturnal, and that the ears evolved to enable them to detect and avoid predatory bats. Other butterfly families which do not possess ears are thought to have evolved daytime flight as an alternative anti-bat strategy.
 
Killer caterpillars !
Caterpillars of the Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius are territorial. The silk trails which they lay as they walk along twigs have a slight odour. This enables each larva to recognise it's own silk trail, and use it as a route map to find it's way back to particularly succulent leaves. If two larvae meet, the larger one spins a silk web around the smaller one to kill it, or bites it to death.
Epiphile caterpillars in South America are equipped with long sharp poisonous "antlers" which they use to defend themselves against other insects. If disturbed they swish their heads violently, using the antlers to puncture the skin of attacking insects. The lepidopterist A. Muyshondt observed Epiphile caterpillars attacking each other, locking antlers until death.
 
Run and jump in Ghana !
In 2001, at Baobeng-Fiema rainforest in Ghana, I observed the strange antics of a leaping caterpillar. Crawling towards the tip of a leaf, it came to a "dead end", whereupon it rapidly shuffled backwards a couple of inches, before taking a run and jump to leap across to another leaf about 9 inches away. Fascinated by this extraordinary behaviour I continued to watch as the larva repeated the process several times to migrate across the bush.
 
Intelligent butterflies !
The seemingly complex courtship rituals of many butterflies implies that they have some degree of intelligence, but careful analysis shows that the rituals are merely a series of instinctive responses to specific stimuli. A female for example might settle and open her wings if showered with pheromones, but the male then has to respond in a particular way which signals the female to initiate the next stage in the ritual, and so on.
There is some evidence however that certain butterflies do demonstrate intelligence. The Heliconius butterflies of South America live for several months, but never stray beyond their local patch of forest, although other perfectly suitable habitats may be nearby. The reason is because they learn the precise locations of scarce Psiguria plants in their home range, and systematically visit them each day to gather pollen, which provides them with amino acids that are essential for egg production and longevity.
The butterflies live solitarily, but roost communally, and are able to learn the locations of regular roosting sites. They are thought to roost together as a defensive strategy - when a bird eats one Heliconius butterfly and finds that it tastes bad, it is likely to leave the other butterflies alone.

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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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