Gulf Fritillaries and strange oviposition

[Mark Walker]

I was watching a Eurema lisa yesterday near Corpus Christi, TX, ovipositing
on bare ground.  I presume that there is plenty of hostplant still
available, but apparently a small exploration period for the larva is
considered acceptable.  Or maybe the butterfly is taking the potential rainy
season growth of the hostplant into account.  Pretty cool in either case.

Mark Walker
visiting Houston, TX   USA

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	SK Khew [SMTP:khewsk at hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Sunday, December 06, 1998 8:14 PM
> To:	leps-l at lists.yale.edu; MYTZ14A at prodigy.com
> Subject:	Re: Gulf Fritillaries and strange oviposition
> 
> A fellow-lepidopterist was pruning a small lime bush when a Papilio 
> demoleus malayanus fluttered by.  He froze with his hand holding on to 
> the stalk of the plant whilst the butterfly explored the plant for a 
> place to lay her eggs.
> She ended up laying an egg on my friend's watch face!  
> Looks like butterflies would lay eggs on anything/anyone which is close 
> enough to the host plant for the young caterpillars to reach.
> Just thought I'd share something from Asia after the big UK-US debate.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> 
> >Subject: Re: Gulf Fritillaries and strange oviposition
> >Reply-To: MYTZ14A at prodigy.com
> >X-Sender: newsgate at newsguy.com
> >X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.2 -- ListProc(tm) by CREN
> >
> >I have heard of gulf fritillaries laying eggs on a wall a vine was 
> likely 
> >to reach by the time the egg hatched.  But I have never heard of one 
> >laying an egg on another animal.  You must be special!
> >
> >Sally
> >
> >
> 
> 
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