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Talking Caterpillars Links: ant/lycaenid interactions

South Australian Butterflies, By R. Grund, chair of Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc.
-- fabulous photos of ant/lycaenid interactions
From the same web site:
Life history of the blue, Ogyris genoveva
Index of datasheets and life histories of south Australian butterflies, including life history info on lycaenids and their interactions with ants.

"Ants welcome at caterpillar picnics" - ScienceNow article on research by Anurag Agrawal at the University of Toronto in Canada. "Lycaenid caterpillars squeezed with tweezers to mimic an ant attack oozed twice as much sugar as they normally do when being groomed, the researchers report in the 22 September issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London."

"Ants & Caterpillars: Interdependence" - brief interview with Diane Wagner (University of Las Vegas, Nevada) in the Sonoran Desert on ants and Hemiargus isola. From "Pulse of the Planet" (2-min science sound bite) July 31, 2002

Ant-Butterfly Interactions: Research home page of Diane Wagner at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada.
--Nice photos of Hemiargus isola.

"A Life With Lycaenids" -- profile of Naomi Pierce, from the Harvard Magazine, July-August 2001, with some info on her research.

Home page for research on "large blues:" Drs. David Nash and Thomas Damm Als at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus are currently investigating communication between the Alcon blue butterfly (genus Maculniea) and its host ants. Maculinea butterflies have an unusual life cycle in which most of their larval life is spent as parasites inside ant nests.
More from the same web site:
The Imperial Blue Butterfly (Jalmenus), with diagram of larva showing location of ant-communication organs.
The Alcon Blue (Maculinea) which gets adopted by ants.
SEMs of DNOs and pore cupolas

Ants Pawns In Battle Of Wasps, Butterflies: National Geographic News, May 30, 2002. Based on research by J. A. Thomas et al. that appeared in the May 30 issue of Nature. "Even when they win, they lose: Hapless ants, like mortals caught in a crossfire between competing gods, are exploited in turn by two other insects—a butterfly and a wasp. When the wasp attacks the larval butterfly, it drives the ants to attack each other, turning them into incidental casualties."

Exploiting Myrmecophily, Blue Butterflies Fool Ants: UniSci March 6, 2001. "Entomologists are finally unraveling the extraordinary relationship between certain ants and two very rare British insects -- the large blue butterfly and the Microdon hoverfly." Based on research by J. A. Thomas and others.

"When Ants Squeak" from Science News Online, Feb. 5, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 6: mostly about ant acoustic communication, but includes stuff about lycaenid acoustic communication.


References:
Hickling, R. 1999. Ants have an acoustic world of their own. Meeting of the Entomological Society of America. Dec. 12-16. Atlanta.
Roces, F., and B. Hölldobler. 1996. Use of stridulation in foraging leaf-cutting ants: Mechanical support during cutting or short-range recruitment signal? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 39:293.
______. 1995. Vibrational communication between hitchhikers and foragers in leaf-cutting ants (Atta cephalotes). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 37:297.

Weaver Ants--Interactive insects: ants that have a symbiotic relationship with lycaenids, in Malaysia. From Star Publications (Malaysia) Tuesday, December 17, 2002.