Insects can be so sneaky

The ant blue butterfly has a cunning character: to strengthen itself as a caterpillar, it uses its body’s tricks to smuggle itself into an ant hole. There he feasts on the larvae of the animals.

The caterpillar uses a sugary sap to attract the ants and emits a special scent. This means that the caterpillars are not recognized as possible prey and are carried into the nest by the ants. There the caterpillars happily destroy hundreds of ant larvae without being recognized as an intruder by the ants. The butterfly larvae grow larger and fatter until they pupate.

After the “pupal rest” the ant blueling emerges as a butterfly in the ant nest. He no longer has his ability to camouflage and therefore has to run away as quickly as possible to avoid becoming prey for the ants. The scales on the butterfly’s body provide only limited protection.

By the way, if you don’t know what a “Trojan Horse” is, here’s a quick excursion into Greek mythology:

During the Trojan War, the Greeks devised a plan to invade the city of Troy. They built a huge wooden horse, hid it in the horse’s belly and placed it outside the city gates as a supposed gift to the Trojans and a sacrifice to the gods. The Trojans, unaware of the Greek soldiers hidden inside, brought the horse to their city as a trophy. That night the Greek soldiers got out of the hollow horse, opened the city gates to their comrades and Troy fell to the Greeks, marking the end of the war.