#lachryphagy

Moths of the genus Tarsolepis have cryptic wing-patterns that mimic the appearance of wood, but their wings are also decorated with several patches of highly reflective scales that have a silvery, almost mirror-like appearance when exposed to direct light.

Several of these moths are known to engage in lachryphagy, meaning that they drink the tears of other animals. They generally do this with large mammals like water buffalo, elephants, cattle, and horses, but they've also been observed drinking the tears of human beings.

The moth will typically hover near the host's face while it uses its proboscis to sip the fluid from around the eye.

This behavior might seem disturbing, but Tarsolepis moths are not known to be harmful, aside from causing very mild irritation and/or inflammation when they probe the host's eye with their proboscis.

As this article notes:

The hosts’ reaction to the moths approaching them, trying to alight near eyes, or being settled there with the proboscis probing or rubbing on lid and cornea, has been outlined in some detail; reactions are generally mild. Of course such massive moths as Tarsolepis can disquiet a sensitive host by just circling around it, but when the insects persisted the host often ended up tolerating the intruder.

Lachryphagous behavior has also been observed in moths from several other genera/families; it's known to occur in species like Rhagastis olivacea, Arcyophora longivalvis, Poncetia albistriga, and Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica (those are just a few examples).

Researchers believe that moths engage in lachryphagy as a way to supplement their diet with important nutrients, especially sodium.

Sources & More Info:

Moths of Borneo: Tarsolepis sommeri

The Heaviest Tear-Drinkers: Figures 42, 43 and 51

Journal of Vector Ecology: Blood, Sweat, and Tears: a Review of the Hematophagous, Sudophagous, and Lachryphagous Lepidoptera

Did you know butterflies weren’t the first insects to look like butterflies?

Lepidopterans (the group of insects containing moths and butterflies) have been around since the Late Triassic -- but it wasn’t until the diversification of flowering plants during the Cretaceous that recognizable moths would have evolved, and true butterflies didn’t actually appear until the early Cenozoic.

Before then, back in the mid-Jurassic about 165 million years ago, a completely different group of insects convergently evolved remarkably butterfly-like features such as large colorful scaled wings and long sucking proboscises.

Known as the kalligrammatids, these insects were giant members of the lacewing group, related to modern forms like antlions and owlflies. But unlike their predatory relatives the kalligrammatids were specialized pollinators, possibly having a mutualistic relationship with the flower-like cones of bennettitales or the pollination drops of some types of conifers. They seem to have originated in China and were found across Asia and Europe by the Late Jurassic, but a few fossils from South America suggest they were even more widespread and may just have a poor fossil record.

They reached wingspans of up to 16cm (~6″), comparable to some of the largest modern butterflies, and often sported conspicuous anti-predator markings on their wings such as stripes and eyespots -- so it’s not surprising that they’re often nicknamed the “butterflies of the Jurassic”.

Rather ironically, the extinction of the kalligrammatids was probably linked to the rise of the flowering plants that the true butterflies would later be so dependent on. As flowers diversified and plants like the bennettitales declined, the kalligrammatids dwindled and disappeared, with the last known fossil record coming from the mid-Cretaceous of Brazil about 113 million years ago.

But while they were around, I do wonder if they also exhibited some similar behaviors -- such as mud-puddling for extra nutrients, and specifically the habit of drinking the tears of larger animals that we see in some species. Perhaps some non-avian dinosaurs like this Dilong occasionally put up with kalligrammatids sitting on their faces!

---------

A butterfly drinks from a turtle's tears, another one sips from a crocodile’s eye. Should I upset you and a tear appears a Monarch may attend you, by and by.

"The photos represent the first documented evidence of moths drinking moose tears."

Scientists have previously observed moths, bees and butterflies feeding on the tears of other animals. They’ve documented solitary bees drinking the tears of yellow-spotted river turtles in Ecuador, stingless bees harvesting human tears in Thailand, erebid moths feasting on the tears of ringed kingfishers in Colombia and erebid moths slurping up the tears of sleeping black-chinned antbirds in Brazil.

lachryphagy. based on this image which appeared on wikipedia's main page recently.