Hi again, just a quick update of what has been around lately.
As promised before, here is a Common Crow butterfly.
These are currently hibernating in huge numbers
in the tropical forests of the Whitsundays. If you
remember the last email, I had a picture of the
chrysalis of this butterfly.
Here it is.
Now, also I had a series of pictures of this ant,
the Green Tree Ant (Oecophylla smaragdina.)
Pretty distinctive, right?
What's this then? This is an ant-imitating bug. Now, we have
explored bugs before. A true bug is not just any insect, but one
that meets a few requirements- including sucking, straw-like
mouthparts. This bug here imitates the ant in as many ways
as possible. Probably not a predatory bug like the Assassin
Bugs and Water Bugs we looked at last time, this and other
ant-imitating bugs appear to be vegetarian, drinking only
plant fluids. There is another ant-imitating bug in QLD
that I have seen, it looks exactly like a large, black ant except for the
mouthparts.
The
scientific name of this bug, and what benefits it gains
from looking like an ant are unknown. Perhaps it
avoids bug-specific predators such as certain
types of wasp. Or maybe it can feed in peace among
the vicious soldier ants? We'll just add this to the
pile of insect mysteries for now I think.
If you have any workable suggestions, please email me.
- Nathan Litjens