Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places

Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Life An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox By Erin Garcia de Jesús14 hours ago Health & Medicine A lab on wheels is tracking HIV spread in war-torn Ukraine By Kamal Nahas18 hours ago Archaeology Iron Age mass grave may hold unusual victims: mostly women and children By Tom MetcalfeFebruary 23, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Animals Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places By Jake Buehler2 hours ago Life An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox By Erin Garcia de Jesús14 hours ago Animals Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs By Emily Conover16 hours ago Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Climate Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today By Carolyn GramlingFebruary 20, 2026 Climate Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas By Michael MarshallFebruary 19, 2026 Oceans Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died By Elie DolginFebruary 13, 2026 Physics Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Recent posts in Physics Animals Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs By Emily Conover16 hours ago Physics Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe By Emily ConoverFebruary 17, 2026 Physics A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test By Emily ConoverFebruary 11, 2026 Space Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Recent posts in Space Planetary Science Venus has a massive lava tube By Tom MetcalfeFebruary 23, 2026 Science & Society Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space By Tina Hesman SaeyFebruary 20, 2026 Astronomy This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads By Adam MannFebruary 12, 2026 News Animals Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places Mimicking an ant’s rhythmic chatter gets workers to protect or even feed the caterpillar A caterpillar of a scarce large blue butterfly (Phengaris teleius) is tended to by its host, a common elbowed red ant (Myrmica scabrinodis). Daniel Sanchez By Jake Buehler 2 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Some caterpillars speak ant by rocking to a beat. By jiggling like a cellphone receiving a call while on vibrate, the caterpillars cozy up to ants, reaping benefits for them both. The findings, published February 25 in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, suggest that the ability to keep a beat might be more widespread in the animal kingdom than researchers thought.  Many caterpillars in the gossamer-winged butterfly family are “myrmecophilous,” or ant-loving. These larvae have evolved close relationships with ants, including pavement ants, in the genus Tetramorium, and those in the genus Myrmica. The degree and type of relationship varies. Some caterpillars receive food or protection from ants; others are fully considered ant brood and adopted into the nest. These caterpillars can then exploit the nest, feeding on ant larvae. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. The caterpillars sometimes mimic the ants’ chemical cues to befriend them, repaying their hosts with sugary excretions. But research had hinted that some caterpillars were copying the way ant queens vibrate to communicate with their colony, says Chiara De Gregorio, an ethologist at the University of Warwick in England.  This raised the possibility that these caterpillars “might be exploiting existing communication systems within the ant colony,” De Gregorio says. She and her colleagues collected nine caterpillar species and the colonies of two ant species from across Northern Italy. The researchers categorized the caterpillars as ranging from no relationship with ants to highly myrmecophilous — a parasite totally reliant on ants for survival. Using sensitive microphones, the team recorded and analyzed the tiny vibrations the caterpillars and ants made that traveled through materials such as dirt. That provided a close look at the tempo and regularity of the buzzing signals. “Across many animal species, rhythm is increasingly recognized as an important component of communication,” says De Gregorio. “It’s not only what is communicated that matters, but also how.” Both caterpillars and ants vibrated with a regular pattern, much like the ticking of a metronome, she says. But only the caterpillars most dependent upon ants could produce rhythmic patterns that matched the ants’ complexity — including keeping even pauses between pulses and an alternating pattern of long and short spaces. This precise rhythmic language may be important for forming a close partnership with the ants.  A Maculinea butterfly (Phengaris) rests on some grass. As larvae, these butterflies have close relationships with ants, facilitated by a shared vibrational language.Vibrant Lab, Torino De Gregorio thinks the ants were already using these vibrations for their own communication needs. Caterpillars that could tap into that system “would receive more attention and care from the ants,” she says. Luan Dias Lima, an entomologist at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, is interested in seeing a similar study on metalmark butterflies. Their caterpillars indepen