symbioses

[Doug Yanega]

>        I am heading to the Peruvian Amazon in the spring for a field trip.
>I have to write a paper for this class and would like to do it on something
>about butterflies and their relationships with other animals and plants.
>For example, something like the monarch's use of the milkweed plant and the
>viceroys mimicry.  Does anyone have any suggestions about S. American
>species, or know of any good books.

Look up the research of Larry Gilbert & associates on mimicry complexes of
Heliconiid butterflies and their mimics. That alone should give you a
good-sized and interesting paper. Ithomiids are also a good topic, but not
as well-studied. A lot of these complexes can involve butterflies in
numerous other families (Danaidae, Pieridae, Acraeidae, Riodinidae,
Papilionidae, Nymphalidae), plus moths (esp. Arctiidae) and occasionally
certain Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, or Homoptera might fit
into the mimicry ring.

[NOTE THAT I WILL BE LEAVING BRAZIL ON FEB 13]

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82