An ant colony is a safe haven in an unforgiving world, offering food and protection for the insects that built it. “They are well-defended fortresses,” said Rachelle Adams, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio State University who studies ants and their communication.
Other insects have discovered this fact, too. “It’s such a concentration of resources that it makes sense that other organisms want to get in,” Dr. Adams said. But first those bugs have to figure out how to sneak inside and blend in without being detected and killed by the ants.
In a study published Wednesday in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, researchers show how some butterflies hack the secret code of the colony, essentially learning to speak the ants’ language as a way to find shelter there.
Gossamer-winged butterflies in the family Lycaenidae evolved so that baby caterpillars can use both acoustic and chemical communication to trick ants. The ants then care for them in the colony until they become butterflies and fly away. Scientists have studied this behavior for centuries.
But how exactly the caterpillars break the ants’ code has remained a bit of a mystery. Some caterpillars create a sugary substance to lure ants to them when they’re outside the nest.
They can also produce sounds and pheromones to mimic ants, with some even imitating ant queens to try to get royal treatment in the colony. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber. Log in. Want all of The Times. Subscribe.
