![]() ![]() “Now we have evidence that butterfly tails provide a similar benefit against visual predators,” says Juliette Rubin. The tails of some moths can interfere with the echolocation tactics of hungry bats. You escaped from a predator, but maybe there’s a trade-off.” For instance, she notes, it’s possible that losing those tails might slow their flight. It’s unclear if there’s a downside to a butterfly losing two tails versus one, Chotard says. They, too, can have break-away tails that allow them to escape hungry predators. Something similar is seen in some lizards. And because the tails tear off easily, attacked butterflies often can escape and fly away. Their data suggest those tails distract birds away from the prey’s most vulnerable body parts. The brittle tail extensions can tear off easily, allowing the insect to escape.Ĭhotard’s team published its findings May 25 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The butterfly’s tails may distract attackers away from essential body parts. That was more than any other body area on these insect decoys.Ī captive great tit songbird attacks the lower wings and tails of a butterfly decoy made with real wings from a sail swallowtail. And nearly four in every 10 strikes hit both a tail and the orange and blue colored areas on the wing at the same time. Nearly three in every four of their beak strikes - 43 out of 59 - focused on lower parts of the wings. ![]() So it’s not surprising that it could break off most easily in a bird’s beak. The tail’s vein was the most fragile part. The researchers also measured the force needed to tear off different sections of a swallowtail’s wing. Videos recorded how the birds responded.Īnd respond they did. The biologists made the fake insects by gluing real swallowtail wings to a cardboard body. Then they introduced butterfly mimics to the caged birds. They captured several dozen songbirds called great tits. When the researchers looked at all 130 of the wings in this group (there are two wings per butterfly), they found that more than eight in every 10 of the wings had damaged “tails.” This suggests predators indeed may target the eye-catching structures. These vivid colors stand in sharp contrast to the yellow stripes covering the rest of the wings.Īmong the 138 swallowtails collected, 65 - not quite half of them - had at least one damaged tail. (They look a lot like the forked tails of the family of birds called swallows.) On the wings just above the butterfly’s tails are splotches of blue and orange. They get their common name from the two black tails extending from their wings. These butterflies are found throughout Europe and Asia. ![]() The insects’ formal name is Iphiclides podalirius (IF-ih-KLIH-deez Poh-dul-IR-ee-us). To find out, they collected sail swallowtail butterflies near Ariege, France. ![]()
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