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I don’t do a lot of “pic of the day” posts. They generally don’t get a lot of views. But I have to have this photo of butterflies drinking tears from turtle eyes on my site — I want to look at it often and I hope our readers enjoy it, too.
From Twisted Sifter:
In this remarkable capture, Julia Butterflies (Dryas iulia) are seen drinking the tears of turtles in Ecuador. The turtles placidly permit the butterflies to sip from their eyes as they bask on a log. This “tear-feeding” is a phenomenon known as lachryphagy which is a type of mud-puddling.
From Wikipedia:
Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck up the fluid.
This photo was named the 2014 Picture of the Year by Wikimedia Commons.
I needed these sweet turtle tears today. Don’t you guys need this today? Beautiful.
h/t Twisted Sifter
