What eats plantain?

[Niklas Wahlberg]

Hi,
   The only butterflies eating plantain in Britain (to my knowledge) are 
Melitaea cinxia (Glanville fritillary), which has a black spiny caterpillar 
with a brick red head, and occasionally Melitaea athalia (heath 
fritillary), which has a dark grey caterpillar with a black head and some 
yellow bands on the body. Several other melitaeines use Plantago on 
mainland Europe. Tolman and Lewington's "Butterflies of Britain and Europe" 
is a good reference. The melitaeines (checkerspots) are fairly closely 
related to buckeyes. How closely, I'm trying to find out at the moment!

Cheers,
Niklas

At 15:19 2001.05.12 -0700, Sunsol wrote:
>In my neighborhood, buckeye caterpillars eat plaintain. But I received a
>postcard from the University of California Press announcing the publication
>of British Butterflies and their Collectors by Michael A Salmon. There is
>one of those beautiful old-fashioned botanical prints on the front with
>butterflies, caterpillars, and even a chrysalis on plantain. Opps! no
>caption. So what is that eating plantain in Britian? They have a website at
>www.ucpress.edu, but I doubt that the illustration is there. Maybe the
>illustration has little to do with the book...
>
>Sally
>
>
>
>
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Niklas Wahlberg
Department of Zoology
Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN

Phone: +46 8 164047
Fax:   +46 8 167715

http://www.zoologi.su.se/research/ihp/


 
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