The wild is a place where interesting and amazing things can never run out. Part of the beauty of nature is its natural inhabitants, which are the animals that never fail to deliver enriching events. In a viral photograph circulating online, nature has once again proven its magnificence as a brightly-colored orange butterfly was spotted drinking the tears of a turtle.
Many think that the image resembles a magical children's movie or a fictional book but interestingly, it is all too real. In the photo, a Julia butterfly (Dryas Iulia) is seen situated atop the face of the turtle, with its wings fully spread and its face in close proximity to the eye of the reptile.
While people may regard this event as a testament to the wonderful friendship that butterflies and turtles share, it is not the case. The truth is, the insect is plainly doing what it needs to do in order to keep healthy and remain in tiptop shape. Lachryphagy, which means "tear-feeding," is a natural phenomenon that is characterized by the need of species to drink the tears of other animals in order to survive.
Butterflies constantly require minerals such as sodium or salt in order to boost its metabolism and efficiently continue on with its egg manufacturing function. As turtles are carnivorous animals, their diet is rich in sodium, Phil Torres from the Tambopata Research Center Peru told Live Science. Herbivores, on the other hand, painstakingly hunt down for this mineral.
Because turtles are slow-movers, they make great targets. Nonetheless, butterflies also get their fill of sodium from the urine of other animals, puddles, dirty river banks filled with mud, clothing damped with perspiration and sweaty humans, says Geoff Gallice, entomology graduate student from the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Amid the magical sight, the big question is do turtles get hurt or affected by this feeding pattern of the insects? According to experts, the impact of the action in turtles is not yet clearly established. Nonetheless, it is believed that the effect is not significant, unless the insects overly hinder the sight of the turtles that it fail to immediately counter the attacks of its predators.
The image was taken in Ecuador in 2012 by Amalavida.tv and became the recipient of the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year in 2014.
