Lepidoptera Lasciviousness
Michael Gochfeld
gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Tue Jul 10 23:20:05 EDT 2001
Mary Beth,
It sounds exciting. It doesn't strike me as unexpected. When typical
behaviors are thwarted they may be redirected to an inappropriate
object. That's probably pretty classical Lorenz/Tinbergen stuff. But, I
don't know that anyone has actually documented its form as you have.
It's interesting to know how long the males persist and whether they
break off spontaneously. What would happen if a correct female
chrysalis was suddenly planted near one of the inappropriate couplings.
Would the male be able to break off the relationship. If this persists
you could actually do some experiments, but I suppose you can't tell in
advance which chrysalid is going to be the female vs themale.
I suppose you could simply remove all chyrsalids and induce the abnormal
behavior and then replace several at a time (assuming that thesex ratio
is more or less equal).
Have fun. MIKE GOCHFELD
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