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entomolog: Butterflies eating a piranha! (By Maggie Koerth-Baker) You’ve seen a lot of good taxidermy this week, but nothing quite like this. Renee Mertz sent me this photo of a diorama at Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum, which depicts a group of butterflies greedily feeding off the carcass of a dead piranha. This is not a spot of whimsy, people. This kind of thing really does happen. In fact, you can watch a real-life example (with a less-threatening fish substituted in for the piranha) in a video taken in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest. The good news: The butterflies are not really carnivorous, per se. The bad news: What they’re actually doing is still pretty damn creepy. It’s called “puddling” or “mud-puddling”. The basic idea works like this: Butterflies get most of their diet in the form of nectar. They’re pollinators. But nectar doesn’t have all the nutrients and minerals butterflies need to survive, so they have to dip their probosces into some other food sources, as well. Depending on the species of butterfly, those other sources can include: Mineral-rich water in a shallow mud puddle, animal poop, and (yes) carrion. When butterflies puddle over a dead fish, though, they aren’t biting off chunks. Instead, they’re essentially licking the dead fish—going after salt and minerals that seep out of the dead animal as it decomposes. Bonus: Some butterflies also like to lick the sweat off of humans. And a few species of moth have been documented sucking blood and tears for living animals, including humans. Source: http://boingboing.net

entomolog:

Butterflies eating a piranha!

(By )

You’ve seen a lot of good taxidermy this week, but nothing quite like this. Renee Mertz sent me this photo of a diorama at Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum, which depicts a group of butterflies greedily feeding off the carcass of a dead piranha.

This is not a spot of whimsy, people. This kind of thing really does happen. In fact, you can watch a real-life example (with a less-threatening fish substituted in for the piranha) in a video taken in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest.

The good news: The butterflies are not really carnivorous, per se. The bad news: What they’re actually doing is still pretty damn creepy.

It’s called “puddling” or “mud-puddling”. The basic idea works like this: Butterflies get most of their diet in the form of nectar. They’re pollinators. But nectar doesn’t have all the nutrients and minerals butterflies need to survive, so they have to dip their probosces into some other food sources, as well. Depending on the species of butterfly, those other sources can include: Mineral-rich water in a shallow mud puddle, animal poop, and (yes) carrion.

When butterflies puddle over a dead fish, though, they aren’t biting off chunks. Instead, they’re essentially licking the dead fish—going after salt and minerals that seep out of the dead animal as it decomposes. Bonus: Some butterflies also like to lick the sweat off of humans. And a few species of moth have been documented sucking blood and tears for living animals, including humans.

Source: http://boingboing.net

Posted 3 months ago with 135 notes
  1. brookiepoopoohead reblogged this from meringuemaggie
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  7. beautyandthebeast reblogged this from indigodel and added:
    WTF, THERE IS THIS….
  8. my-wounded-rhymes reblogged this from mary-beth and added:
    Butterflies eating a piranha
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  11. telegantmess reblogged this from jhameia and added:
    Theres an Elvis Costello lyric this makes me think of “A butterfly drinks a turtle’s tears, but how do you know he...
  12. brandopink reblogged this from harpoonthosezombies and added:
    NOPE CHUCK TESTA
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  17. lucymissedtheboat reblogged this from ecdysozoa and added:
    Licking a dead fish, love it.
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