Butterfly territoriality/aggression

[ANDREA KNEBEL]

Hi, 

Bill wrote:
> the topic of butterfly territoriality is one that has never been
> clarified for me:  Rumor has it that lepidoptera are not agressive the
> way people ( or practically every other vertebrate and arthropod ) are,
> so we're anthropmorphizing lepidoptera behavior to call it something
> we'd recognise, but what else could it be?

I think I can say that butterflies can be aggressive. In the sonoran 
desert, Arizona, USA, lives the desert hackberry butterfly 
(Asterocampa leilia) and he defends territories. To do so he 
chasses other males away. And it looks aggressive to me. They 
may not fist fight or so but still it is a real chase. And in the end 
only one male is left in the territory they use to meet mates.

And I think it was in Parage aegeria that males really hit other 
males while chasing them from above with their wings. The group 
around Wiklund, Wickman etc. in Stockholm even have a video on 
this.   

So, I would say we can talk about aggression and combat in 
butterflies. 

Cheers,

Andrea Knebel
University Bielefeld,
Germany