Curious animal of the week|This article is part of the dossier: Curious animal of the week
Butterflies are widely regarded as peaceful jugglers, fluttering across the meadows drinking nectar. Not so the meadow rue hooded owl. Their males sometimes seek human blood.
When you think of bloodsuckers, you immediately think of mosquitoes, ticks, maybe vampire bats or even scary creatures like Dracula. Few of them are likely to have butterflies in mind, as the summer pollinators are considered to be extremely peaceful and harmless nectar drinkers. The meadow-rue hooded owl (Calyptra thalictri) is an exception here. The moth with the long name feeds on human blood, among other things.
Actually, the genus of Calyptra, to which the meadow rue hooded owl belongs, a typical herbivore. Seven of the 17 species distributed in Africa and Eurasia feed purely on the juice of ripe fruit, which they prick with their proboscis. The other ten species also like to take a sip of blood, preferably from mammals such as cattle, rhinos and elephants. Unlike mosquitoes, where the females are the bloodsuckers, with moths it is only the males who seek out the red sap.
With the trunk through the skin
They also penetrate human skin with their proboscis, get caught in it with a kind of hook and absorb the escaping droplets of blood. The stings are considered rare, so it was not until 1999 that a Russian researcher noticed the behavior. Before that, there were reports from Asian countries where people claimed to have been bitten by moths, but this was never really investigated. So far, no diseases are known that can be transmitted by the moth, even if an itchy spot remains after the bite. Unlike mosquitoes, moths are not attracted to exhaled CO2, nor do they have saliva that slows blood clotting.
Why only the males drink blood has not yet been fully clarified. It is assumed that the animals absorb additional salts and sugars as a result. Proteins cannot be digested by moths in the absence of appropriate enzymes, so amino acids are excreted as nutrients in the blood as a target. However, some males transfer salts to the females during mating, which encourages the production of eggs. It is possible that the males suck blood in order to use the salt drawn from it as a kind of “wedding present”.
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Not the only one with blood in her stomach
In their defense, hooded owls aren’t the only butterflies to taste blood. In the stomach of a moth found in Southeast Asia, Lobocraspis griseifusa, blood was also found in a study. However, since the animals cannot penetrate the skin with their proboscis, it is assumed that the blood was accidentally sucked in from an existing wound.
Characteristics
German name: Meadow-rue hooded owl
Scientific name:Calyptra thalictri
Distribution: From Japan and Malaysia to Russia and southern Europe. Individual reports from Finland and Sweden.
wingspan: 40 bis 60 Millimeter
Appear: Butterflies fly between May and September
Food: Caterpillars feed on meadow rue (Thalictrum)
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