Friday, February 6th, 2009

Caterpillar Mimicry

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.