Sparring Bugs Question

[Chip Taylor]

Doug: Are you describing the behavior of territorial/mate-seeking 
males? Male monarchs will sometime chase birds for a few meters. I've 
also seen migrating monarchs chased by drone honey bees when I've had 
the scent of a queen in the air. The monarchs get goosed along their 
way. I imagine that the evasive behavior is simply predator 
avoidance. Their vision is not that good especially if something is 
approaching them from below and behind. If something approaches them 
rapidly, they may just get out of the way. (Drones will chase most 
anything that moves including medium sized birds if a queen scent is 
present.) And, what is carinenta for those of us who don't know this 
beastie?

Chip
>
>plexippus apparently in migration pauses in the territory of 
>carinenta.  carinenta jets out to meet plexippus and buzzes his tail 
>in a "Top Gun" style aerial roll, causing plexippus to skedaddle to 
>mama as fast as he can.
>
>Why is plexippus threatened by carinenta specifically, or more 
>generally what are little fellows packing to cause the bug guys such 
>fear.  Douglas Dawn
>stelenes at pobox.com
>Monterrey, Mexico


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