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Related: About this forumButterflies drink turtle tears for their salt fix
http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/butterflies-drink-turtle-tears-for-their-salt-fix.htmlIn order to get their dose of sodium, butterflies in the Amazon rainforest turn to crying turtles. Scientist Phil Torres points out that while turtles get plenty of salt from their carnivorous diet, butterflies (and most herbivores) have a harder time finding the important mineral, especially in the west Amazon rainforest where there is very little salt at all. Their solution lies, in part, in the damp edges of turtle eyes. Torres wants to study the behavior more to find out if there are other minerals in the moisture that the insects are after.
snip
According to Live Science, "Turtle tears are not the only source of such salts for butterflies; the insects also readily get the salt from animal urine, muddy river banks, puddles, sweaty clothes and sweating people, said Geoff Gallice, a graduate student of entomology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, who has witnessed butterflies flocking to turtle tears in the western Amazon rain forest."
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Butterflies drink turtle tears for their salt fix (Original Post)
BlueToTheBone
Sep 2013
OP
Javaman
(62,534 posts)1. Butterflies are the thugs of nature...
Butterfly Fat Tony: I need a drink, let us to go beat up on some turtles.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)2. And here I thougth it was symbiosis
and cooperation of species. I'll clean your eyes and you give me a drink!
Javaman
(62,534 posts)3. See that's where you have to be careful...
butterflies suck you in with their beauty. Then when you're not looking...
never turn your back on a butterfly.
BlueToTheBone
(3,747 posts)4. or you end up with this
Okay that didn't work...take this!
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=tomato+horn+worm&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)5. my thoughts exactly
I wonder how many times a day do these poor turtles get hit in the head with falling rocks
Or are the butterflies emotionally abusive
words hit as hard as a fist
shenmue
(38,506 posts)6. Turtles are sad?
Oh noes!