[leps-talk] MALE x FEMALE emergence

Martin Bailey cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca
Fri May 24 10:08:36 EDT 2002


I do not know if this will be adding or substracting from the debate.

Last season strong continous south winds coupled with good rains created
ideal conditions for Checkered White (Pontia protodice) to come and prosper
in my region where they usually are a rarity.  To verify my observations, I
mailed vouchers out to those who know a great deal more than I do.  Not
surprising my males keyed out as male checkered for all samples.  No
confusion between male checkered and male western.  (P. occidentalis is
common here.)

Distinguishing females between P. protodice and P. occidentalis was the hard
part.

In a field of thousands of whites, I estimated that I had many more P.
protodice males than male occidentalis and was probably right.  However, all
the females that I had swept up turned out to be female occidentalis, female
protodice were not evident.

In another field, I was luckier.  I had managed to collect female checkered
flying amongst the male checkered.

If in the first field there were already mature female occidentalis  and
mature male protodice ( and no emergent female protodice), would there not
be a lot of cross-breeding?  And possibly when the female protodice emerge,
the male protodice would be past their prime breeding state.  Hence, in this
area cross-bred progeny would be far greater than the "pure" bred.

Martin Bailey,

greetings from:  Weyburn, SK., Canada.
                         49.39N  103.51W




 
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