Larvae are bright BLACK-AND-YELLOW STRIPED CATERPILLARS — gregarious in early instars, often clustered together in dense groups on host plants. Can completely defoliate large ragwort populations.
Over 100 species of birds, butterflies, and other animals have evolved to follow army-ant raids — the most species-rich animal-following community on Earth.
Bullet ant colonies are surprisingly small — a few hundred to a few thousand workers — compared with the millions of leaf-cutter or driver ants sharing their forest.
Bumblebee colonies live one year — the queen overwinters alone and founds a new colony each spring.
The famous Silence of the Lambs poster moth is a chrysalis of Acherontia styx — a death's-head cousin.
Driver ants build no permanent nest — the colony moves continuously and bivouacs as a living ant-ball when it stops.
Emperor scorpion mothers carry 10-30 live young on their backs for the first month after birth.
