<<(is there an earthly analogue for a species that never eats? I vaguely recall there is).
Butterflies for one>>
True, but they usually drink nutritious liquids, such as nectar, so they are eating after a fashion - its not as if they're subsisting purely on water, say. Having said which:
Andrew Barton:
<< Aren't there some species of insects which cannot eat after they emerge from their chrysalis stage? I read this about silkworms, but since it was in a historical novel it may just have been a wrong belief at the time.>>
Certainly, although Dave D was asking specifically about creatures which *never* eat. However, the insects that do this pull the trick off by living for only a short time after they metamorphose - mayflies don't eat anything once they sprout their wings for example. I don't know about silkworms specifically, but there are some butterflies which don't even drink nectar (some of them even lack mouths) so its quite possible.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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