Friday, February 6th, 2009

Caterpillar Mimicry

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Caterpillar of Maculinea rebeli inside a Red (Myrmica) ant nest, being fed regurgitations by a worker ant. Image courtesy of Jeremy Thomas.

How does a parasitic caterpillar survive inside an ant nest? According to research published this week in the journal Science, Maculinea rebeli caterpillars trick worker ants into giving them the royal treatment by mimicking the sounds of the ant queens. Worker ants feed and protect the caterpillars in part because they smell like ant larvae, in part because they beg for food like ant larvae, and in part because they make noises similar to that made by the ant queen. We'll talk with one of the researchers about the finding.

Guests

Jeremy A. Thomas
Professor of Ecology
Oxford University
Oxford, Great Britain, UK

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Segment produced by:Annette Heist

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Image: Adult Maculinea rebeli butterfly resting cross-leaved gentians, the early food of its caterpillars.
Image courtesy of Jeremy Thomas.

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