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| Butterflies trick ants into raising young |
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kittycatintx1961
Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Posts: 186
Location: Still in Stephen's wildest dreams |
 Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:04 am |
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Butterflies trick ants into raising young
Similar larvae fool ants into caring for offspring in their colonies
updated 4:27 p.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 3, 2008
WASHINGTON - Call it the cuckoo of butterflies. Like the well-known birds, the Alcon blue butterfly has found a way to get others to raise its offspring. Researchers in Denmark report that the large blue butterfly has managed to produce larvae with a chemical coating similar to that of the local Myrmica rubra ants.
The butterflies deposit their larvae on marsh gentian plants where exploring ants find them, identify the chemical coating, and take the butterfly larvae back to the ant colony and feed them until they grow up and leave, the researchers report in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
The researchers, led by David R. Nash of the University of Copenhagen, added that elsewhere in Europe the Alcon butterfly uses a different ant species to raise its young.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22492200/
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elkhorn the downtrodden
Joined: 09 Feb 2008
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:18 pm |
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Zoe
Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Posts: 264
Location: a world that's full of shit and gasoline |
| Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:04 am |
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Only a nerd would find that interesting.
*feigns disinterest*
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