Written by Joe Ballenger
I wanted to know if it is possible for the adult butterfly to be poisonous while the caterpillar of the same species is not poisonous?
I think this is a really insightful question, and I’ve got a soft spot for questions asked by kids.
I guess we should start by talking about why this question is really insightful.
Lepidopterans-butterflies and moths-have a huge chemical arsenal at their disposal which ranges from compounds which smell really bad, to venom that’s strong enough to kill humans. There’s a variety of ways they can introduce these compounds, but for the most part, they’re either stored in the body as larvae or they’re based on a developmental program that’s also part of the larva.
So it’s kind of an unusual situation where an adult would be toxic while a larva wouldn’t…but it does exist.
Kind of.
It’s complicated.
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