The vein on the “tail” of a sail swallowtail butterfly is more fragile than in other parts of the wing, and may break off easily in an attack.
Some butterfly species with false head or eyespot patterns on their wings are known to receive more attacks from predators in those regions. And Chotard and her colleagues wondered if tails were also a target.
Among the collected swallowtails, 65, or 41 percent, had damaged wings, all of which had at least one tail damaged. When all 130 wings in this group of damaged butterflies were counted, more than 82 percent of the wings had damaged tails, suggesting that predators may be targeting the spindly parts. Forty-three out of 59 beak strikes, or nearly 73 percent, were on the hind wings. Twenty-three, or 39 percent, of the strikes touched both a tail and colored areas on the upper part of a hind wing simultaneously, more than any other body area on the dummies.
Chotard and her colleagues also measured how much force was needed to tear various sections of the swallowtail wing. They found that the vein of the hind wing tail was the most fragile part of the wing and is probably the location most apt to break off in a hungry bird’s beak.
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