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If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Puddling Behavior
Have you ever seen a bunch of butterflies in a puddle? Do you know what they're doing? They're drinking a ton of water in order to get ions, especially Na+. It's called puddling behavior. What's amazing is that certain species can consume up to 600X their body mass and excrete 8microliters of urine every 3 seconds for 200 minutes! They have unique digestive tract set up for this type of thing-- during this behavior they don't try to conserve water at all, water gets sent straight through quickly in order to get as many ions as possible from such a dilute source. It is for this same reason that insects (and other animals like mountain goats) are attracted to urine. It's for the salts, not the water!
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Mmmm, Interesting urine facts!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing that you can enjoy butterflies and be fascinated by them even though you don't know anything about them. But at the same time, not even the smartest person stops being amazed even though they know a lot about butterflies. They are just amazed on a different level looking at a deeper layer.
I always tell people the same thing about the Bible.
I have wondered why butterflies congregate at puddles. Now I know!
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned: puddles are actually butterfly pee.
ReplyDeleteNice, Aaron. Interesting paragraph! I agree with Dad-butterflies are amazing.
ReplyDeleteGrampa says "very interesting"
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