According to the researchers, they increase the supply of pheromones for mating.
Scientists from the University of Sydney made an amazing discovery: Danaida-monarch’s butterflies feed on living caterpillars of their own kind.
According to researchers, they thereby increase the supply of pheromones for mating.
Observing these insects, entomologists noticed that their diet includes caterpillars in any condition: dying, dead, and living. At the same time, the caterpillars themselves eat poisonous plants-outfit varieties of milking.
The substances contained in them scare away predators and, in addition, in the future, they form the basis of bright colors on the wings of butterflies.
The same chemical compounds help males of butterflies to produce pheromones, and in the adult stage, insects seek not only fragrant flowers with nectar but also a natural source of poison.
To do this, the butterflies «scratch» the leaves: they damage the plants with claws, and from there the juice begins to stand out, which the insect needs to be absorbed with a long tongue.
But for some reason, in the forests of Northern Sulawesi (Indonesia), butterflies were chosen instead of plants, and this was noticed for the first time.
Previously, entomologists met monarchs on the remains of dead insects, but they belonged to a different species, and in general, it was not clear whether they were killed from the attack or on their own.
The new discovery makes you look at the ecology of a monarch’s ecology: perhaps in the wild, it began to lack nutrients.
The caterpillars have already shown aggression in relation to each other when there were not enough resources.
