Even worker ants would rather have a young butterfly as queen than an icky old Aunt. I mean Ant.
On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 2:07 PM, Ian Skinner <[email protected]> wrote: > > Ants tricked into raising butterflies > http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090205/D965JRUO1.html > > "Flitting across your yard, butterflies seem friendly and harmless. But > at least one type has learned to raise its young as parasites, tricking > ants into feeding it and giving special treatment." > > This is what made me go "wow." > > "But in an experiment, a butterfly pupa pretending to be an ant queen > was placed in a chamber with worker ants and four real ant queens. The > ant queens began to attack and bite the caterpillar, but the workers > intervened, biting and stinging their own queens, which they then pulled > to a far corner of the chamber while other workers attended the pupa." > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:287827 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
