[leps-talk] MALE x FEMALE emergence

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Wed May 22 16:01:06 EDT 2002


*Speyeria* are often gregarious and gather in large numbers of mixed 
species and mixed sexes at sources of abundant nectar such as *Apocynum* 
and Spotted Knapweed in the middle Rocky Mountains, or at Milkweed and 
Dogwood in Ontario and Pennsylvania. In large congregations in Montana it 
is frequent to find mating pairs, and once in a while these are mixed 
species pairs or apparent hybrid backcross pairs.
.........................Chris Durden

At 05:44 PM 5/21/2002 -0300, you wrote:
>Hi
>
>Thanks for the tips. The one regarding female dispersal (or dispersion?) 
>is quite interesting, indeed I've been always thaught that females keep 
>themselves near the hostplants. But it is obvious that, may be, is not at 
>all like that.
>
>As for Speyeria... my question: are they gregarious?? - european big 
>fritillaries (Argynnis, Pandoriana, Mesoacidalia) are not gregarious at 
>all, as far as I know.
>
>Riodinids are particularly known for frequenting the same spots year after 
>year, sometimes at particular timetable (see C. Callaghan), so it's 
>particularly notorious and striking the Euselasia sinchronism.
>
>
>I've never tried to rear gregarious Saturniidae, but now I have some 30 
>Lonomia (yes! the KILLER bug) pupae... eager to see what happens, but I 
>bet females will show up first.
>
>Thank you once again.
>
>Jorge
>
>P.S. I did confirm with a friend doing a revision of Actinote, that in all 
>species he has breed up today, the males came first... and by all means, 
>they left a squamous "plug" in the female 'ductus bursae' (no, definitely 
>not a scientific binomial name, sorry!) after the ... ummhhh how should I 
>say... copula.
>
>
>Jorge



 
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