why caterpillars eat their eggshells

[Cris Guppy or Aud Fischer]

The first step in answering the questions might be to ask "Why do some
caterpillars each their eggshells, and some do not?" Caterpillars of some
butterflies definitely do not eat the eggshells (chorion), others eat them
sometimes or only partially, and some species always eat the entire
eggshell. I have no idea what the answer to the question is, other than
having previously read the assorted speculations that have been repeated in
various postings in this thread. And of course there may be more than one
answer, with different butterfly species eating (or not) the eggshells for
different reasons.

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Grehan" <jrg13 at psu.edu>
To: <Leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 7:16 PM
Subject: why caterpillars eat their eggshells


>
> >Please straighten this out.... why DO they eat their eggshells?
>
> Probably for the same reason we eat anything at all. There is an
> object that fulfulls a physiological requirement - hunger. Those
> caterpillars are of such a physionlogy that they respond to the
> egg shell as food and thus they eat. This may result in
> nutritional or microbial benefit, but I am not aware that
> the caterpillars take action with this or any other result
> in mind.
>
> John Grehan
>
>
>
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