why caterpillars eat their eggshells

[mbpi at juno.com]

Ron:

Definitely "Crouching Tiger..." (The British did "Traffik" better some
years ago on a PBS, BBC production.)

One could also pose the question:  Why do dogs eat their vomit?  Perhaps,
in their case, it is an olfactory response...or nothing more than a
desire to "hide the evidence" from their owner!

M.B. Prondzinski
(Born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger)

On Fri, 30 Mar 2001 17:26:10 -0500 "Ron Gatrelle" <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>
writes:
> Carnivorous and/or cannibalistic behavior is a fairly frequent thing 
> with
> larvae. I have often wondered if the base chemicals in plants that 
> trigger
> the species specific "this is your host plant, eat it" response are 
> so
> present in sibling larvae that this chemical induced "eat it" 
> response is
> what triggers some cannibalism? Since so many species will starve 
> before
> eating a non specific plant - why will they then eat flesh. I have 
> found in
> rearing Mitoura hesseli and gryneus that they will eat smaller 
> larvae well
> into late instars. If they are all the same size there is little 
> problem.
> Also how many species will eat the larvae of different species?
> 
>  -- Now I'm hungry. So off to dinner with the wife and then a movie.
> Crouching Tiger or Traffic?  Let's see.... movie.... wife. Humm. 
> Crouching
> tiger it is. Mary Beth, Liz, Anne, etc. - Is this the correct 
> choice?
> RG
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "rudy benavides" <rbenavid at hotmail.com>
> To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 1:40 PM
> Subject: Re: why caterpillars eat their eggshells
> 
> 
> > Some caterpillars will also eat 1st instars that are on their host 
> plant.
> >
> > Rudy Benavides
> > Maryland
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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