Butterflies Behaving Badly...

James Kruse fnjjk1 at uaf.edu
Thu Aug 23 15:42:09 EDT 2001


Although I can't out-do the cross-family pairing that Norbert saw, I did see
a male Hyles lineata (White-Lined Sphinx) at a collecting sheet in southeast
Arizona last year with his aedeagus firmly embedded into the aedeagus of a
male Sphinx "smithi" (Smith's Undescribed Sphinx). This pairing made it into
one of the News of the Lepidopterists' Society as sent in by my collecting
buddy Liam O'Brien (whose journal artwork has also made it into the News). I
also seem to remember a cross-genus pairing in Michigan that made the News.

James J. Kruse, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum
907 Yukon Drive
Fairbanks, AK, USA 99775-6960
tel 907.474.5579
fax 907.474.1987
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/ento



on 8/23/01 9:20 AM, Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX at Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
wrote:

> A couple of perhaps interesting observations on this thread. Some years ago
> while watching a female Parnassius eversmanni flying above the tundra of
> Keno Hill, Yukon; a male seemingly came out of nowhere in full flap and
> crashed into her with an audible sound -- further events transpired on the
> ground.  I was also intrigued locally to have seen a male Speyeria leto
> firmly affixed to the abdomen of a Sheep Moth. Flutterbugs do have some
> interesting behaviours :-)
> 

> M.B. Prondzinski wrote:
> 
>> What I've observed with all the varying
>> species present in the constrictions of the tent, is the cross-species
>> "interest" in the Queens!
> 
>> I've found them in tussles with Monarchs on the ground, refusing sexual
>> advances as best as they can...
>> 
>> Today, I observed for first time, the successful coupling of a worn male
>> Monarch with an equally aged and shredded female Queen...odd since there
>> were plenty of individuals of both species present to mate with (!)
> 


 
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