"Ant nest" rubs rice Elcon blue butterfly larvae
We are already familiar with the phenomenon of doves occupying magpie nests, but have you heard of "butterfly nests"? There is a special butterfly in nature - Alcon Blue Butterfly, as a small butterfly, Elcon Blue Butterfly has a unique way of survival in nature, their larvae can successfully deceive red ants, enter the nest inside to enjoy a comfortable parasitic life, their secret weapon is smell.
As a member of the genus Haze Butterfly in the family Grey Butterfly, the Elcon Blue Butterfly is mainly distributed in the Siberian region of Europe and Asia, belonging to the annual generation of insects called "monomorphic", and they also have a special identity, that is, typical obligated parasites. Not only the Elcon blue butterfly, most members of the haze butterfly family it is in have some kind of connection with ants, and the larva parasitism in the nest is the most basic survival skill, which is characterized by the very different haze gray butterfly family, to know that ants can make caterpillars a natural enemy.
Every year in July is the season of feathering and mating of Alcon blue butterflies, female Elcon blue butterflies lay their eggs on the flowers of the swamp gentian, the larvae do not immediately look for ant nests after hatching, but feed on the swamp gentian, this process lasts about 2-3 weeks, during which the larvae undergo 3 molting, at this time the larvae of the Elcon blue butterfly grow to 3 to 4 mm long and weigh 1 to 3 mg.
The size of this size, for the ants, is a "bite by bite" of the excellent delicacy, the larvae of other insects will absolutely desperately find a corner to hide, to avoid the carpet hunting of ants, but the Elcon blue butterfly larvae will make a "bold" decision, through the tail pulled out of the "seat belt", from the high swamp gentian leaf end "airborne" to the ground, personally send themselves to the ant's chassis, and then, the larvae on the ground will immediately release chemical pheromones that attract local red ants, quietly waiting to be found by the worker ants.
Since the worker ant is to be abducted, whether it can successfully simulate the chemical odor of the red ant larvae has become the key, the Elcon blue butterfly 4-year-old larvae have a special production of chemical pheromones at the end of the abdomen, which can release hydrocarbons similar to the red ant larvae, and the Elcon blue butterfly larvae with a high degree of match with the smell of the red ant larvae are more likely to be found by passing worker ants, and then taken back to the nest as an ant larvae, and cared for without difference from other ant larvae.
The cunning Elcon blue butterfly larvae are not satisfied with being an ordinary "ant larvae", and then they begin to imitate the sound of the queen, the result is that the ants treat this group of scammers as royalty, if there is a shortage of food, the ants will give priority to feeding the blue butterfly larvae, rather than their own larvae, get high priority feeding, the blue butterfly larvae will grow very large, but the ants with poor vision do not feel that there is anything special about the "giant babies" in front of them, and are willingly exploited and enslaved. This process will last about two years.
Two years later, in May, the mature larvae will reach 12 mm in length, weigh 100 mg, and pupate in the nest, and after about a month of pupal period, it is time to say goodbye to the nest and the Elcon blue butterfly begins to feather. The Elcon blue butterflies that emerge from the pupae can no longer deceive the red ants, and they must flee the nest as soon as possible in the face of the fierce red ants, and since the blue butterflies are covered with fluff and scales, they can effectively avoid injury.
So after 2 years of meticulous care, the red ants are finally a bamboo basket to hit the water, at least the red ants are the ultimate loser, but the Alcon blue butterfly is not necessarily the final winner. As the saying goes: the wicked have their own wicked grinders, and what the larvae of the Elcon blue butterfly that enslave ants do not know is that their natural enemy, the bee, is coming.
The wasp that lays its eggs in the caterpillar's body
The bee is a genus of hymenoptera, the body length is 3-40 mm, yellowish brown; the antennae are slender; the wings are transparent, the forewings have two ileums; the abdomen is relatively narrow and long, don't look at the appearance of the bee is gentle and kind, however, all of their members are living on other insect species, are the deadly enemies of these insect larvae, this parasitic wasp distribution range is very wide, China alone distributed about 7000 species, is an important agricultural economic significance of a class of insects.
When the bee parasitizes on the caterpillar body, it can be divided into two forms, one is parasitizing outside the caterpillar's body, and the other is to burrow into the caterpillar's body to parasitize, and after the bee finds a suitable host, it will use a thin egg layer to pierce the caterpillar's body to lay the eggs in the body. Caterpillars have a lot of water and nutrients in the body, the larvae of the bee are both sheltered in their bodies, but also unceremoniously absorb the nutrients that the caterpillars ingest day and night, the caterpillars want to store enough nutrients for their own feathering, they are very hard, so the larvae of the bees are very sufficient and grow particularly fast.
In general, the growth of the host determines the growth of the bee larvae, they will hardly affect the normal health of the host in the host, and even their body must be smaller than the host, and the growth period must be faster than the host. In order not to kill the host in advance, the bee will control the number of eggs laid according to the size of the host, and when the host stops developing and enters the diapause period, the larvae of the bee also enter the corresponding diapause period.
According to studies, this phenomenon that coincides with host development is caused by the endocrine influence of the host. Because the skin of the bee larvae is very thin, when the host enters the diapause, the endocrine that affects the diapause produced in the body also penetrates into the larvae of the bee, causing the diapause of the bee larvae, which is also the reason why the host does not reject the larvae of the bee.
Parasite meets parasite, and the mighty wasp rushes into the nest and searches for Elcon blue butterfly larvae to lay eggs
Some of the bees are specifically looking for the Parasites of the Elcon Blue Butterfly larvae, don't look at the Elcon Blue Butterfly by virtue of its own smell talent successfully mixed into the guarded nest, but this kind of Bee naturally has a way to deal with them. Surrounded by the swamp gentian, the bees can judge the parasitic nests of the Elcon blue butterfly larvae, the bees are not afraid of the nibbling of the worker ants, and the strong bees will rush into the nests to find the Elcon blue butterfly larvae mixed among the ant larvae.
The secret weapon on which the bee depends is also the chemical pheromone. The bees that rush into the nest will undoubtedly be attacked by the workers' ants, but the special chemical pheromones secreted by the bees will be stained on the workers' ants, and this pheromone can make the workers attack each other, so that the supporting worker ants will pour fire on the previous worker ants, and the bees on the side of the melee will not watch the liveliness, but rush into the nursery, find the blue butterfly larvae lurking in the ant larvae, and lay an egg in their bodies.
Depending on the size of the host, the bee controls not only the number of eggs laid, but also the type of eggs. The bee can lay two types of eggs, one is a fertilized egg and the other is an unfertilized egg. Most of the fertilized eggs are laid in the larger host of the individual, while the unfertilized eggs are laid in the small host of the individual, and the former develops and grows daughters, while the latter are sons.
The bee who completed the task left the nest with a big swing, and when the pheromone of the bee disappeared, everything returned to normal, the blue butterfly larvae constantly made a begging sound, and the nannies hurried to hand over the food, but the fate of the waiting blue butterfly larvae was already doomed.