The Rebeli Blue
The cuckoo of the butterfly world

The Rebeli Blue Butterfly is one of the wonders of the insect world. It is one of the few species where the caterpillar is carnivorous. The female lays her eggs on the flower buds of the Cross-leaved Gentian and the little caterpillars hatch and start to feed on the developing flowers.

This is a picture of the female of the Rebeli Blue butterfly. She is about to lay an egg on a plant of Cross-leaved Gentian. This picture is the actual first individual adult butterfly of this species that was recorded in the French Pyrennes.

After a while the caterpillars wander off the plant and lurk in the vegetation until they are met by a red ant. The tiny caterpillar looks rather like ant grub and it also produces a sugary liquid from a gland on its back. The ant eagerly drinks the liquid and spends some time proding and climing over the tiny caterpillar to get more. As it does this the ant is covering the caterpillar with the unique scent of its home nest. After a while the ant picks up the caterpillar and carries it back to the nest. It is convinced that it is one of the ant larvae that has somehow wandered outside.

Inside the nest the most remarkable thing happens. The ants are so convinced that the caterpillar is one of their own brood that they actually begin to feed the caterpillar. They even continue to feed it when it has grown to a much larger size than any ant larva.

This is picture of the habitat of the Rebeli Blue.This spot is in the French Pyrennes where it is only known from a small group of meadows. More places are known on the Spanish side of the mountains.

Sadly the Rebeli Blue is becoming increasingly rare. Many of the fields where it used to be found have been ploughed up for crops and it can no longer be found. It is a protected species in many of the European countries where it is found.