A butterfly tastes with its feet.

A butterfly can land on a leaf and run a chemical check with its feet. Contact chemosensilla on its tarsi detect plant compounds. In the swallowtail Atrophaneura alcinous, different sensilla responded differently to host- and nonhost-plant extracts. Those signals help females sort plants during oviposition, and the study counted about 75 long sensilla on a female’s fifth tarsomere versus about 7 on a male’s. Human-like flavor perception remains untested. 1

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