The tiny scavengers

[Prajwal J Ullal]

ID: Dead Plains cupid being feasted by tiny mites?

Came across an interesting sight of some dead cupids, along the dried water bed, mostly due to the extreme heat(though not sure). Though this butterfly seemed dead, there seemed to be some motion happening along its body, on close observation I realized tiny orange insects roaming along the butterfly, probably feeding over it. Not sure about the id of the tiny insects, the other cupids, few cms away from this one, also seemed to be covered with these tiny bugs.

EXIF:
Canon 550D
Canon 100mm macro
F/18
Shutterspeed 1/125
ISO 400
Handheld, External flash fired

Location: Nagla trail

[Disha Parchani]

Sad to see this but makes a good subject.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nothing in nature goes to waste. I had not noticed the orange insects, until I read the details :). Was it possible to move the camera a bit more down to include less of the dried leaf and more of the butterfly at the bottom? Thanks for sharing.

[Roshni Patel]

Probably a creative one if seen from the perspective of orange birds.

[Prajwal J Ullal]

Mrudul Ma'm, it was a bit difficult frame, as these where in the gap between rocks, so getting that low with a better framing was difficult for me :(

[Arun Acharjee]

Hello Pranjal J Ullal ji. The orange creatures seem to be mites which belong to the CLASS- Arachnida (Sub-phylum: Chelicerata; Phylum: Arthropoda) in which there are spiders and scorpions too. Mites are parasites that need for host to live. Sometimes the host died due to them.
In other hand insects belong to the CLASS- Insecta (Sub-phylum: Hexapoda; Phylum: Arthropoda).
In field I found many weevils, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, spiders etc under mite attack. The victim may die under extreme condition. In this case the cause of death of the butterfly may not be the mites. Though I wish for expert's opinion to be sure.