Amazing what you can learn from just observing nature. Early March I saw a lot of ants at the top of a young acacia tree and I thought the tree was in trouble, seeping sugary sap. This is at Birdsland Reserve by the big lake.
A week later I discovered the ants were covering a whole lot of bugs and I thought the bugs were in trouble. Lots of small butterflies flying around too.
After uploading images to iNaturalist I got the name of the butterfly and looked it up. The true story is this:
The ants are Dolichoderinae and they swarm together to protect the caterpillars and Pupate of the Jalmenus evagorus Butterfly, otherwise known as the Imperial Hairstreak or Common Imperial Blue. The ants protect them from predators (spiders, mantids and other ant types). The caterpillars squeeze sap from the Blackwood sapling which is what attracts the ants, so they feed off that, while protecting the caterpillars and pupate.
A few days later we had very heavy rain, around 60mm, and I thought that would be the end of the pupate and butterflies, but no, a week later, revisiting the spot, there were butterflies hanging around, a couple looking worse for wear, but probably because they’ve aged. I have pointed these out to a few people who have walked by at different times, mostly those with kids, as I thought they might like to show their children.
Below are some photos I’ve taken with my camera and my phone (click the first to scroll through), plus a video. Isn’t Nature amazing?
