Butterfly larvae

Maculinea butterflies have a good thing going. As larvae they hang out in Myrmica ant nests, feeding on the ant’s own larvae in safety and comfort. Room, board and three  squares a day, the only thing that could mess it up is if those pesky ants got wise to the scam and, oh, tore the butterfly larvae apart and ate it. So why don’t they? Part of it is that the larvae use chemical signals to fool the ants, but scientists have also recently discovered that parasitic Maculinea species, commonly known in their adult forms as Large Blue butterflies, have also learned to mimic ant voices and “talk” to the ants, letting them know that everything is cool man and that they’re going to get a job and have their half of the rent next week. “Acoustic signals convey quite complex information, not only between worker ants while outside the colony, for example during foraging, but also within the nest and between castes,” said Francesca Barbero, the lead researcher on