Looking forward to seeing #wildlife and views like these again soon, and sharing pictures online! Fingers firmly crossed for better weather than is forecast...

A Silver-studded Blue on a mission! This was the final caterpillar of my PhD fieldwork last spring disappearing into the vegetation. They really can pick up speed when they want to!

A newly emerged Silver-studded Blue butterfly with its entourage of Lasius ants.

After crawling from the ant nest in which it pupated, the butterfly continues to have worker ants in attendance throughout the vulnerable process of expanding its wings. It's very cool finding them covered in ants like this!

The chrysalis of a Silver-studded Blue butterfly with Lasius ants attending to it. The caterpillars pupate inside or near to ant nests, often with multiple chrysalises lodging together in the same nest.

Silver-studded Blue caterpillars come in a choice of two colour schemes. The fourth instar caterpillars can either be a light brown or bright apple-green.

In this video, you can also see the tentacle organs in action. These are two retractable projections at the caterpillar's rear-end, which it can pop-up to attract the attention of ants.

Following on from yesterday, here's a Silver-studded Blue caterpillar with its posse of Lasius niger ants in attendance. These ants continually escort the caterpillar everywhere it goes, protecting it from predators and milking the honeydew that it produces.

Meet the Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus): a little butterfly with an amazing relationship with ants!

#SilverStuddedBlue caterpillars attract #ants by secreting sugary liquid & amino acids from a special gland & pores. These ants look after the caterpillar in return, protecting it from predators and even allowing it to pupate inside their nest. This video shows a newly emerged #butterfly crawling out of the ants' nest, surrounded by a protective swarm of ants.

#mutualism #symbiosis​