On my run today I saw a tiger swallowtail flutter over and land on a roadkilled snapping turtle. The carcass had putrefied and blackened, obviously been dead for several days at least, yet the butterfly landed right on it and began to lap up…whatever it wanted to lap up. After doing research I foun…

My fvery irst iNat observation - the entire reason I joined - was to get an ID for the “ Poop butterflies ” a coworker and I kept seeing on walks. You can guess why we gave them that name.

Saw a Question Mark a year back feeding on a dead baby box turtle.

Wow. This is so cool! Never seen them land on such before! Now I’m gonna have to keep track of them. :-D

Wow!!! Thanks for sharing this disturbingly fascinating observation!

I believe in general adult Lepidoptera can feed only on liquid nutrition due to the structure of their proboscis. So besides nectar I have seen them feed on tree sap, rotting fruit, bird poop, dung, compost, carrion (specifically fish), human sweat, damp sand and mud etc. I believe the latter food s…

Butterflies are absolutely disgusting. Many tropical species in the Nymphalidae family can be baited with absolutely rotten fish. I once placed a jar of the stuff along a river, and had a dozen species clamouring to get at it within short order. Some Acraea even drowned themselves in the frenzy. Ba…

Butterflies are seriously metal …

It’s probably worth mentioning the Calyptra moths here as well, aka the “Vampire Moths”, so called because some in the genus drink the blood of mammals. https://entomologytoday.org/2015/10/30/vampire-moths-suck-the-blood-of-vertebrates-including-humans/

[image] dinofelis: Butterflies are seriously metal … I think I saw a comment like this on a YT video about the butterflies that drink turtle tears.

Butterflies feasting on carrion

Nature Talk

earthknight July 10, 2020, 5:39am 6

Yep, I see butterflies on all sorts of carrion, as well as on compost piles.

They seem to be especially fond of dead frogs.

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Butterflies feasting on carrion

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