#caterpillars

#caterpillars

Peppered Moth Caterpillars Can Sense Color Through Their Skin to Match Their Body ColorDifferent animals are known to have camouflage capabilities as their way of living and surviving. They have systems in their bodies that allow perception of color and light aside from their eyes. The peppered moth (Biston betularia) is an example of an insect that does this.Researchers painted the eyes of peppered moth caterpillars to test if they could still adapt the colors of their background, even if they cannot see. These critters changed their colors to that of their respective background colors as if they were not blindfolded in the first place.Amy Eacock, one of the lead authors of the new study and currently a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, said, "It was completely surprising to me that blindfolded caterpillars are still able to pick a branch that best matches their color. I don’t think my supervisor, Ilik Saccheri, believed me until he saw it by himself.”Image: Arjen van’t Hof, University of Liverpool#caterpillars #moth #skin #color #PepperedMoth

Male Milkweed Butterflies Feed On Live Caterpillars To Steal Chemicals Which Function As “Wedding Gifts” To Their MatesButterflies are generally peaceful creatures. But not all of them. There are butterflies who are brutal, specifically male milkweed butterflies. These butterflies will do anything to please their mates, including feeding on young caterpillars — their family’s young. Yup. That’s how brutal some butterflies can be. But what reason would they have to target young caterpillars? The answer is, these caterpillars are a great source of chemicals, which the adult males use to produce mating pheromones. These pheromones serve as gifts to the females during courtship.Milkweed butterflies have been previously reported to feed on dead chemical-containing insects, but these butterflies doing the same thing on living insects is a first. PhD candidate Yi-Kai Tea, the lead author of the study, says that this is the first time such behavior was documented.“The behaviour does not fit neatly in the traditional modes of predation, parasitism, or mutualism, and so presents a new challenge to evolutionary theory. We have coined it ‘kleptopharmacophagy’ – chemical theft for consumption.”To supplement the chemical supplies they obtain as caterpillar juveniles, the butterflies engage in a behaviour known as “leaf-scratching”. “They damage [chemical containing] plants with their sharp tarsal claws, liberate plant juices and imbibe them using their long, curly tongues,” said Mr Tea.Scratching at live caterpillars, however, had never previously been reported. “Caterpillars are essentially bags of macerated leaves; the same leaves that contain these potent chemicals the milkweed butterflies seek out. To adult butterflies, they may simply be an alternative source of chemicals on which to feed,” said Mr Tea.The study has been published over at Ecology’s The Scientific Naturalist.Nature sure is weird, and could sometimes be horrible.(Image Credit: Yannkemper/ Wikimedia Commons)#Butterflies #MilkweedButterflies #Kleptopharmacophagy #Mating #Ecology #Entomology #Pheromones #Caterpillars