Social Butterfly + another angle on Common names

[Stelenes at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/14/00 5:38:28 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
drdn at mail.utexas.edu writes:

> >  I doubt the Eucheira socialis butterfly is social in that sense, but 
>  >>someone more familiar with the species' behavior might comment.
>  >- - -
>  >Yes it is. Adults hatch in the tent, fly out during the day and roost
>  inside the tent at night. I have found up to 13 adults in the tent along
>  with pupae and larvae (in Sinaloa). Larvae crawl out during the night to
>  feed and repair the tent. By day they ring the inside of the tent opening
>  with their jaws, threatening any parasitic wasps that try to enter.
>  >..........Chris Durden

Chris, this is truly an amazing sounding bug, and your first hand description 
can fit well with the idea of 'Social' for both the caterpillars and the 
butterflies.  I say this because I recognize no obvious reason for the 
caterpillars to afford the butterflies protection at night - no benefit to 
the cats.  That certainly deserves further investigation if not previously 
studied.  Hank just indicated that the 'tent' is more like a bag, so it 
sounds like the butterflies theoretically could return.  Just for clarity, 
since you are the one who has observed them, how did you determine how many 
butterflies returned to the bag vs. those that were inside emerging from 
pupa?  If you confirm you are sure some butterflies entered the tent, do you 
know whether were they hatched in that particular tent colony or in another 
one?

Also, logically without extenuating situations, the tent colony has to be 
either (1) a transient or permanent colony resulting from eggs laid by 
several females over time or (2) by one female on multiple ocassions, or the 
species have a (3) musical tents situation in that the butterflies from older 
mature tents seek out younger, larval tents.  (I still pity the last 
catapillers of the season who get rewarded by butterflies making their tents 
more noticable and doing all those repairs and protections with nothing in it 
for them...  

Otherwise if they pupated at roughly the same time there would be no 
relationship as you describe since all the caterpillers would be history and 
there would be a tent going in ruin w/o cat maintenance as the pupa were 
formed and the life cycles marched forward.

It is always nice to talk to someone who has observed this stuff in the field 
rather than read a book.  I hope Hank Brodkin can pass my questions along to 
Fred Heath too, as I am now really curious.........

Thanks and happy butterflying.  

Doug Dawn.
Woodland, CA
Monterrey, MX
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4048/index.html