The Friendly Bug blog
GARDEning with THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND the BUGLY!
(SCIENCE-BASED OPINIONS FROM A PUBLIC HORTICULTURE EDUCATOR)
If you recall, last week I posted an enticing teaser about upcoming pictures of bugs on poop!
To my surprise, despite the amount of bug-covered turds I have come across in my life, I have personally snapped very few pictures of the awesome sight. Lucky for me though, I have the coolest friends ever, so I had faith that they would have picked up the slack where I missed some incredible photographic opportunities! Having that in mind, a plea for poop and insect pictures went out to my friends… And the response was even more exciting than I had imagined, and my e-mail inbox was soon flooded with many iterations of the “bugs on poop” phenomena! The photographers included entomologists, naturalists, biologists, educators, hobbyists, conservationists, and more! So now that I have some awesome imagery to go along with this article, let’s get started on getting to the bottom of the what, who, and why’s that you all have been dying to know! Let’s start with what Coprophagia actually is. Coprophagia is a Greek derived word that literally translates to (Copros: feces) (Phagein: to eat). And that’s what it actually is: the consumption of feces. (Aren’t you glad you asked?) There are many variations of this including; eating the feces of other species (heterospecifics), other individuals (allocoprophagy), or one's own (autocoprophagy).Though many examples of this are found in invertebrates, you can find vertebrates and plants that are also associated with coprophagy. Most of the reasoning around the consumption of feces in invertebrates centers on the acquisition of nutrients or other compounds available through the ingestion of fecal material. The reason for this is partly due to the fact that insects do not have the best digestive systems, and therefore are able to utilize more of the nutrients from pre-digested foods as opposed to consuming it in its primary form. In addition to that, insects also eat poop to gain organisms or other compounds that may not be readily available in their usual diet. And in desperate times, this is used as an emergency source for salts, liquids, proteins, and more. Now that we know a bit more about this, let’s break it down by group of insects- to help us better visualize the groups of coprophagic insects, and the nature of their relationship to poop. A moist morsel of bear poop that we were going to use to lure some cool insects on a collecting trip in South Eastern Kentucky. As you can see, a Small Blue butterfly is very anxious to get to this feast. Photo by Abi Saeed.
BUTTERFLIES (and Moths)!These beautiful insects just can’t get enough of poop! If you come across a large group of them along a trail, you will soon discover their feast is usually comprised of poop (and other wonderful things that you will see below). The same goes for if you happen to find some scat along your way- you will likely find some of these wondrous creatures slurping up the nitrates and amino acids from the liquids surrounding this animal “waste” that they cannot easily get from plant sources. This behavior is generally dubbed “Mud Puddling”.
You can often find male butterflies participating in this ritual, because of the reproductive benefits that they can collect. The nutrients that they obtain from these nuggets of goodness are passed on to females during mating, and they play a role in increasing the survival of her eggs. Another pile of bear poop found in Algonquin Park, in Canada. On the guest list for this feast: a pile of Tiger Swallowtails! Photo by Kelly Greig.
Aside from solid waste, butterflies can also make use of the nitrates in liquid waste!
That's right! I'm talking about good old urine! When nutrients are scarce, these resourceful critters are very good at locating any resources that they can use! This picture was captured in the Peruvian Amazon, and shows two gorgeous MOTHS! That's right, these vibrant day flying critters are moths- a Swallowtail moth (genus: Urania) now isn't that punny? Photo by Marion Le Gall.
You often find these treasure troves of nutrients inhabited by large groups of butterflies. When there is a limited supply of much needed salts, you can often spot these nutrient rich 'pee puddles' by the sight of hundreds of congregating butterflies.
A cool phenomenon observed by entomologist Marion Le Gall in the Eastern part of the Peruvian Amazon, along the Tambopata river. Photo by Marion Le Gall.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a party without some carrion! That’s right! Butterflies will get these salts, nutrients, and amino acids from decaying plants and animals too!
Such gorgeous and majestic creatures, eh!? So if you want to spice up your butterfly and moth collection, you now know what to do... (Pun Intended, of course!) It's actually pretty simple!
1 Comment
Susan
11/3/2016 04:12:29 pm
Loved this Abi! The kids enjoyed hearing about poop eating butterflies on Halloween....especially the boys!
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🐝 Abi SAEED 🐝Entomologist, Pollinator Specialist, Public Science Educator, and Archives
July 2017
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