Speyeria cybele: Defending nectar

bill and Dale droberts03 at snet.net
Tue Jul 17 14:04:29 EDT 2001


Alex and all,
        I do remember Alex's post concerning "aggressive" male Northern
Cloudywings (Thorybes pylades) and in fact it was that post that alerted me to
the possibility of "aggressive" butterfly behavior that I noticed between a
Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) and a lone Monarch (Danaus
plexippus) in my backyard around my Butterfly Bush. What I find interesting
besides discovering the behavioral aspects of butterflies is the tendancy of
we humans to project an image of fragility and peacefulness upon butterflies
when they, in fact, may be every inch the pit bulls of the insect world when
defending a food source or claiming a mate.
                                                            Bill Yule.

"Grkovich, Alex" wrote:

> Bill,
>
> Remember my posting of about a month ago re "Aggressive Male Northern
> Cloudywing"? As I said then, the recent publications on butterfly
> "aggression" and "territorial behavior" suggested that it was neither of
> these but "mate seeking". But the actoins of that NCW that day were
> aggression or territorial behavior, that's for sure. And I see Question
> Marks in my garden all summer, darting at and chasing birds away from its
> perch. I do not suppose a GSF would mistake a Monarch for its mate, so
> probably it is territorial behavior.
>
> Alex
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: bill and Dale [SMTP:droberts03 at snet.net]
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 12:54 PM
> > To:   butterfly ct
> > Subject:      Speyeria cybele: Defending nectar
> >
> > Everybody,
> > I'm curious if anyone else has observed anything like what I'm going to
> > describe?  My Buddleia davidi (Butterfly bush) is approaching tree-like
> > dimensions this year and as a result attracts numbers of Speyeria cybele
> > (Great Spangled Fritillary) and others from my nearby fields.  Normally
> > all is a "peaceable kingdom" on the blossoms as the various individuals
> > and individuals of different species politely drink their fill, making
> > room for others and occasionally exchanging places.  When a Monarch
> > entered the Buddleia air space a couple of days ago peace ended. Almost
> > immediately a Great Spangled Fritillary (GSF) engaged the Monarch in a
> > spiral air battle. It was the kind of ascending circling and jockeying
> > for position that you would normally associate with two members of the
> > same species inspecting each other for sexual prospects.  However this
> > seemed to be a case of the GSF trying to drive the Monarch away from the
> > nectar source.  About 20 feet away from the Buddleia is a patch of
> > Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) which the Monarch tried to approach
> > a half dozen times but was driven off each time by a GSF. This
> > interaction went on for a least an hour, maybe longer, as I drifted off
> > to other things. I'm not sure it was the same individual GSF that
> > engaged the Monarch each time. It very well could have been different
> > individuals  harassing the Monarch because there are generally five or
> > more GSF at my gardens at any one time this part of the season. Then
> > again it could have been the same GSF that had it in for this Monarch.
> >     So I guess my question for the group is this:  Does this behavior
> > suggest a case of mistaken identity (GSF mistakes Monarch for another
> > GSF and possible mate or rival) or does this suggest GSF's (or an
> > individual) defending a nectar source? I'd be interested in any
> > comments.
> >                                                                  Thanks
> > all,
> >
> > Bill Yule


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