Nash Turley and Hamilton Boyce discuss Lycaenid butterflies (AKA blues and hairstreaks) and their bizarre and complicated interactions with ants that range from mutually beneficial to predatory, and it’s the caterpillars doing the killing!

Music by Hamilton Boyce 

References for this episode: 

Thomas JA, Schönrogge KA, Elmes GW. Specializations and host associations of social parasites of ants. Insect evolutionary ecology. 2005

Buckley RC. Interactions involving plants, Homoptera, and ants. Annual review of Ecology and Systematics. 1987

Styrsky JD, Eubanks MD. Ecological consequences of interactions between ants and honeydew-producing insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2007

Pierce NE, Braby MF, Heath A, Lohman DJ, Mathew J, Rand DB, Travassos MA. The ecology and evolution of ant association in the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera). Annual review of entomology. 2002

Pierce NE, Mead PS. Parasitoids as selective agents in the symbiosis between lycaenid butterfly larvae and ants. Science. 1981

Lin YH, Liao YC, Yang CC, Billen J, Yang MM, Hsu YF. Vibrational communication between a myrmecophilous butterfly Spindasis lohita (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) and its host ant Crematogaster rogenhoferi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Scientific reports. 2019

Nash DR, Als TD, Maile R, Jones GR, Boomsma JJ. A mosaic of chemical coevolution in a large blue butterfly. science. 2008