Extremely beautiful assassin

The colorful wings of a butterfly in Asia are beautiful but can cause paralysis or even death for predators.

A butterfly Hebomoia glaucippe that scientists
catch on the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. (Photo: Livescience)

Part of the wing of Hebomoia glaucippe , the name of a butterfly in Asia, covered in dark orange. The presence of orange on the wings makes them more beautiful, but also makes predators find them more easily. A group of biologists from Vienna's Natural History Museum in Austria found that birds, ants, mantis and geckos were not winged by Hebomoia glaucippe butterflies when they caught butterflies, Livescience reported.

After analyzing the dark orange area on the butterfly wings, the team found that it was covered by glucontryphan-M , a toxin capable of causing nerve paralysis. It is worth noting that the sea slug Conus marmoreus has the same poison. Sea slugs pump poison into the prey, causing their flesh to turn into liquid and suck. But the team confirmed that butterflies use poison to defend themselves, not to attack like sea slugs.

The team said they will continue to study the cause of the sea slug Conus marmoreus and the butterfly Hebomoia glaucippe, two animals that live in completely different environments, sharing a poison.