Butterflies Drinking The Tears Of Turtles

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Today I was checking the site WikiMedia for a free photo for my next post and came across the one you can see at the top. It has nothing to do with what I was going to write about. Yet, I find it amazing and I felt I had to share it with you. The scientific name of the butterflies is Dryas iulia (a piece of information for entomologists = scientists studying insects). They and the turtles live in Ecuador. The turtles are basking on a log and permit the butterflies to sip liquid from their eyes. This isn't an exceptional occurrence, though. As I've learnt from research on the net, it's rather a widespread phenomenon which even has a name, i.e., lachryphagy = tear-feeding. "A number of insect species including moths, butterflies, and bees are known to tear-feed, usually on mammals, also crocodiles, and in some cases even humans." On humans! I'm not sure I'd like an insect to fly into my eye and drink my tears. The reason for this is that tears contain salt which is hard to find in nature. Butterflies and bees feed on nectar, but nectar doesn't contain salt. These insects need salt for egg production and for their metabolism. If that is the case one wonders that one doesn't see lachryphagic insects all the time, that one isn't attacked by them in breeding season! The wonders of nature. ---- Photo: WikiMedia (technobyte)