What eats plantain?

Sunsol SUNSOL at prodigy.net
Tue May 15 21:19:18 EDT 2001


Thanks for the info. I wonder why caterpillars find plantain so yummy.

Sally
Niklas Wahlberg <Niklas.Wahlberg at zoologi.su.se> wrote in message
news:5.0.2.1.2.20010514100950.00b39c98 at mail.it.su.se...
> 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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