Eating their young: Butterflies that display cannibal-like behaviour

A Parantica Cleona butterfly feeding on the caterpillar of an Idea Blanchardii. PHOTO: GAN CHEONG-WEEI
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SINGAPORE - When things are not going well, people tend to say "well, it's not always rainbows and butterflies".

But newly documented cannibal-like behaviour in milkweed butterflies suggests that these seemingly gentle insects could actually be the perfect metaphor for such situations.

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