News Animals

Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places

Mimicking an ant’s rhythmic chatter gets workers to protect or even feed the caterpillar

An ant is tending to a caterpillar, with its front legs gently touching the larval butterfly.

A caterpillar of a scarce large blue butterfly (Phengaris teleius) is tended to by its host, a common elbowed red ant (Myrmica scabrinodis).

Daniel Sanchez

By Jake Buehler

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