why caterpillars eat their eggshells

[Martha Rosett Lutz]

Ummmm . . . I'm not sure how to explain this delicately.  Liz Day
apparently misunderstood me when I mentioned coprophagy.  In her response
to my note, she wrote:

MVL:  >I don't like the hypothesis of feeding on conspecifics stimulated by
kairomones in their
 >bodies from the plants they feed on.  This would argue for coprophagy,
too.....


LD:  "Unless there were other, additional responses to chemicals that inhibited
them from eating dead ones (certainly many good reasons for not eating dead
ones come to mind)."

I wasn't thinking of necrophagy (is that a word?).  Coprophagy is something
a bit different.  Let's just say that in spite of plenty of opportunities
to sample their frass (okay--I don't 'scoop' after every time my
caterpillars relieve themselves--I'm a bit lazy and just clean the cages
once every day or two), the leps I work with hav never tried it.


In Stride,
Martha Rosett Lutz



 
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