The Two-Headed Butterfly

Here is a more close-up look at last week's two-headed butterfly. Double click it to make it even bigger. Most of you guessed which one was the real head, but image if you were a bird flying around looking for a meal and you say those two fake antennae twittering in the breeze. Add the eye-spot, and it's a tough call.

Important Update on the Butterfly, Feb. 25:

This butterfly is not just weird...it's an ALIEN! Just today, I received a message from my wife's office straight from one of the head conservationists (scientist who tries to protect plants and animals) . He said to keep a sharp eye out for an alien named Chilades pandava. Now to a scientist, an alien is not a three-eyed, two-headed green blob from space. An alien is any plant or animal that is growing where they don't belong.  (Remember the garlic mustard that is invading our trail?) This butterfly is far from home. It belongs in southeast Asia, not in Madagascar. 

In other places where it has become an alien invader, it has done a lot of harm to cycads. Wow! That's bad...but what's a cycad? Well, I'll tell you. They are tropical plants that look just like ferns and palm trees, but their not. They are cycads. They are some of the oldest plant species on the planet and this butterflies larvae find the leaves delicious. Too delicious. They eat so many leaves that the cycad can die. 

Scientists are looking for natural ways to fight this alien. They did find a parasite that attacks and kills them, but it doesn't kill too many of them, because the alien butterfly larvae have bodyguards that keep them clean and safe. And how do they pay these bodyguards?  With a nice sugary treat that oozes out of their backs. And who are these bodyguards? Ants, of course.

Here's one of the bodyguard ants doing her thing. Insects live in one amazing world don't they?