Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Brace Yourselves - It's a Carnivorous Butterfly

In a comment below yesterday's Global Cooling post, Gaw raises the spectre of a carnivorous butterfly. Well, read this affecting tale, and weep... Truly, there is no end to Nature's wonders - and horrors.
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9 comments:

  1. Gareth Williams13 October 2009 at 14:25

    Crumbs, they scalp the 'little fairies' too it seems. But then these are actually caterpillars rather than butterflies...

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  2. Anonymous13 October 2009 at 14:44

    Nature, red in sweet looks and little upturned noses.

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  3. Nige13 October 2009 at 14:50

    Notice what the adult Harvester eats - aphid honeydew (fair enough), carrion, mud and dung. Our own Purple Emperor is partial to carrion an horse dung...

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  4. Dave Lull13 October 2009 at 15:10

    Yes, no end to nature's wonders:

    "World’s first ‘nearly totally vegetarian’ spider."

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  5. worm13 October 2009 at 15:18

    excellent - wooly aphids needed sorting out.

    also there's those really viscious bastards in hawaii

    http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/good-bad/eupethecia.html

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  6. Brit13 October 2009 at 15:23

    So are we putting butterflies in the bad list, then?

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  7. Nige13 October 2009 at 16:15

    Brit, in a word - NOOOO!!!

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  8. Mark13 October 2009 at 16:38

    My understanding is that some species of butterfly are darn poisonous because of the toxins they acquire from food plants while caterpillars. I wonder if butterflies are on the menu in some parts of the world?

    I guess the Bad List might contain a cross between a butterfly and a scorpion - colourful, absolutely beautiful, aggressive, airborne and - since it would be given to alighting on your arm - with a deadly sting in its tail.

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  9. Janet Creamer Martin15 October 2009 at 19:43

    Thanks for sharing my post!

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