Large Blue Caterpillar Enamel Pin

This butterfly is admired for its beauty, but there's more here than first meets the eye. Eggs are laid on the flowers of host plants like wild thyme, where a caterpillar can blend in as it feasts and grows. But upon reaching its fourth instar, something strange happens.

The caterpillar drops from its host plant and seeks out a red ant (Myrmica sabuleti). Using visual and scent cues, it mimics an ant larva. The ant rushes the caterpillar back to her nest, where it proceeds to gobble up its "siblings" as the worker ants groom and care for it. After a long pupation within the brood chamber, the adult butterfly hurries out of the ant nest before its wings expand. It then lives only a week or so to mate and propagate the species.

This enamel pin is larger than life-sized to show detail. Double-posted, soft enamel with epoxy. Originally from the March 2024 Bug Box.