Crackers

[mbpi at juno.com]

Why thank you, Jeff...I appreciate your interest in my "mental health"
and your timely response.  The information you provided was more in depth
than what M.B. managed to dig up!  I originally asked the question simply
because I was curious if these and other butterfly species were capable
of detecting sound.  I'm afraid the question wasn't politically rabid or
taxonomically challenging enough to elicit a response from this listserv.

I'll follow up on the references you provided...which are much
appreciated!

Mary Beth/M.B./Sybil

On Sun, 25 Mar 2001 16:49:12 -0500 "Jeff Crolla/Martha Hancock"
<jeff at primus.ca> writes:
> LOL! well Mary Beth maybe others from the SW or central america can 
> provide more info, but in the interests of keeping you from 
> "cracking" yourself, hope this helps!
> 
> from The Butterflies of North America by James A. Scott, Stanford 
> University Press, Stanford, California, 1986 (there is info on 8 
> species of Cracker - may be in a local library)
> under Gray Cracker (Hamadryas februa): "Hamadryas adults land upside 
> down with the barklike wings flattened against tree trunks for 
> camouflage. To await females, males perch on trees and dart out at 
> passing butterflies, insects, even people, often making a "cracking" 
> sound with the abdomen. Males of all Hamadryas species - except 
> perhaps H. atlantis and H. iphthime, which are poorly studied - 
> share this behaviour, which males evidently use to discriminate 
> males from females (males may pursue only non-cracking adults), and 
> which accounts for their common name. Hamdryas males have two long 
> lateral spiny rods extending backward from abdomen segment 8, which 
> probably produce the cracking sound when the valvae twang the rods 
> (using a spiny dorsal part of the valva; the spiny parts and rods 
> are longer in species that often crack). The sounds are produced 
> only in flight, for unknown reasons. Both sexes have tympana on the 
> under forewing base, which S. Swihart proved detect sound but cannot 
> produce it."
> 
> pictures of larva & pupa of Gray Cracker and info:
> 
> http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/TX/16.htm
> 
> picture of adult Gray Cracker here:
> 
> http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/butterfly/latin_america/latin_america.html
> 
> article from American Butterflies with some info on etymology of the 
> Cracker names:
> 
> http://www.naba.org/pubs/ab97d/p36.html
> 
> pictures of 5 species of Cracker here under Subfamily Limenitidinae:
> 
> http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/zeeb/butterflies/oldsorlist.html
> 
> all best
> Jeff
> 

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl