Creative writing. Just a bit of fun - out of season idea.

[Jack Harrison]

I start the thread with a butterfly related tale. I suggest no rules (except butterfly content). Use AI if you wish – anything goes (but keep it polite)

Buzz Off

Apis confuser lived on the remote volcanic Pacific island of Mokulele. These weren't typical bees, mindlessly following the Queen's command.  They had evolved strategy and cunning.  Food sources, like the iridescent nectar of the rare cigarette tree, were fiercely guarded secrets, and skirmishes between rival colonies were commonplace.

Dr. Anya Muller, a xenoentomologist, observed the bees with fascination. 

She found it difficult not to keep humming that old Burl Ives song “The Buzzin’ of the Bees in the Cigarette Trees.” 

She marked a dozen worker bees with luminous bioluminescent paint.  When she had deciphered the behaviour, she realised that she had made an observation that utterly amazed her.  These "illuminati" bees - as she named the marked insects- infiltrated another hive, not with aggression, but with deception. They performed flawless waggle dances, mimicking the signal for a bountiful nectar field. The deceived colony, followed blindly, only to find barren volcanic rock.  Anya gasped. The Apis confuser were orchestrating disinformation campaigns, ensuring their own food security while leaving others scrambling for scraps.

But the bees, it seemed, were not content with mere trickery. Soon, the "Battle of Buzz" began. Anya watched as scouts from one hive went to another, meticulously observing the genuine waggle dance for a new nectar source. Back in their own hive, they mimicked it perfectly, sending their own swarm towards the promised bounty. This audacious move sparked a chain reaction. Colonies were sending counter-spies, deciphering the copied dances, and launching their own disinformation campaigns in retaliation. Mokulele became a battlefield of buzzing elaborate ruses, a testament to the evolving intelligence of Apis confuser.

But if bees did this, thought Anya, why not other insects? Mokulele was also home to an island endemic race of Lesser Grass Blue, Zizina otis mokulele butterflies. These are tiny, the size of European Small Blues, Cupido minimus. They were not particularly active and Anya wondered how they had got to Mokulele in the first place. Vegetation on the volcanic island was sparse; hence the bees’ determination to guard their nectar sources. However, a particular but scarce small vetch, Lotus pacificatus, held scant interest for the bees. But it certainly did for the butterflies. Not only did pacificatus provide nectar, but the leaves were the foodplant for the caterpillars.

Anya studied the Blue Boys (as Anya, with little regard for political correctness called Zizina otis mokulele). Eventually, a similar pattern to the behaviour of the bees was discerned.   Blue Boys, by rubbing their hind wings in a circular motion, were indicating where to find the scarce Lotus pacificatus.

Fortunately for posterity, Anya kept copious notes. She somehow managed to link her smart phone via one of Leon Spice’s Space Y satellites, to das einführen Entomologie in Berne. The full report can be downloaded as a pdf at www.pull-the-other-one.ch

Your turn at being Arthur C Clarke II

Jack