A new study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences suggests that some butterfly caterpillars infiltrate ant colonies by mimicking the scent and sounds of ants.
Ants communicate through vibrations—a little drumming and scraping here and there—to convey a variety of things; from coordinating rescues to establishing social hierarchy. Some caterpillars depend on ants for survival, and part of that survival means learning those rhythms to trick ants into thinking that the Caterpillar is just a big, weird-looking ant.
Researchers analyzing 56 recordings from two ant species and nine butterfly species found that the most ant-dependent caterpillars evolved a strikingly precise vibrational structure known as “double meter.”
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Double meter is a layered rhythm in which some beats last roughly twice as long as others. It’s been previously documented in singing primates like gibbons and orangutans. In insects, it isn’t as expected. Scientists from the University of Warwick, the Forest Research Institute in Poland, and the University of Turin measured tens of thousands of pulse intervals, focusing on the timing between vibrations rather than how the signals “sounded.”
All species studied produced a steady, evenly spaced rhythm called isochrony, essentially a metronome-like beat. But only ants and caterpillars dependent on them for survival showed they were capable of producing complex double meter beats.
It’s not all calla pillars, however. Two species in particular demonstrated they had the natural rhythms within them: Plebejus argus and Phengaris alcon. Both species live inside ant colonies and rely entirely on their ant hosts for food and protection. Previous research had already shown that Phengaris alcon mimics the acoustic frequencies of ant queens. This new research shows that they also got the musical timing down.
The study stops short of claiming insects feel rhythm in their hearts and souls like we do, or even in the rudimentary way that primates do. Instead, the researchers say that their attunement to rhythms is a survival instinct.
One survival depends on communication; evolution tends to favor efficient patterns. For caterpillars that depend on ants for survival, that survival comes down to rhythmic precision, vibrating at just the right tempo to speak the language of an entirely different species to convince them that you are worth keeping alive.
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