WASHINGTON (AP) — Flitting across your yard, butterflies seem friendly and harmless. But at least one type has learned to raise its young as parasites, tricking ants into feeding it and giving special treatment.School lunch program...tuition discounts and free medical treatment to illegal aliens...bug style.
The pupae of the European butterfly Maculina rebeli exude a scent that mimics the ants and make themselves at home inside the ant nest. Once they become a caterpillar they even beg for food like ant larvae, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.Entitlement programs ... bug style.
But, not content just to be fed, the butterflies even manage to demand special treatment, Jeremy A. Thomas of Britain's University of Oxford and colleagues report.Affirmative Action...bug style.
It turns out that ant queens make subtle sounds that signal their special status to worker ants. The caterpillars have learned to mimic those sounds, the researchers say, earning high enough status to be rescued before others if the nest is disturbed.There is nothing subtle about the sounds evolving out of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, La Raza and the rest of the race hustlers. However, their approach is mimicked far and wide to apply pressure on publicity shy entities who see the path of least resistance is paying off the "victim" who is making the "sounds."
Bring me the giant magnifying glass...
|