Those few adults....

Mark Walker MWalker at gensym.com
Mon Sep 23 20:11:16 EDT 2002


Well, just for the record...  The numbers of adults has been quite steady -
well into the hundreds - ever since we've been monitoring the population
early this year.  As for multiple stages - the insect has been continuously
brooded during the entire monitoring period.  We have seen females
ovipositing on every visit - averaging about one visit every two weeks.
There are always larvae visible at various stages.  Most are being tended by
ants.  The ant is widespread, including many, many stands of Nickerbean
where the butterfly is curiously absent.

Mark Walker.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kenelm Philip [mailto:fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu]
> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 11:26 AM
> To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Those few adults....
> 
> 
> 	In a recent posting on the Miami Blue, Ron Gatrelle said:
> 
> > One has to remember that adult butterflies are only a small portion of
> > any species overall population.
> 
> That's quite true if you pick the right time to make your census. Right
> after oviposition the population can jump to around 250 times the total
> number of adults. However, the survival of a species is critically depend-
> ent on the number of _reproducing_ individuals. If there were indeed only
> 50 adults, the 12500 ova they produce is not the major factor in survival
> of the colony. For example, consider the case of only 10 adults (and thus
> 2500 ova). The sex ratio for the 2500 ova will almost certainly be near
> 50% male/female--but there is now a distinct possibility that the next
> generation of adults could be all of one sex--in which case those 2500
> ova are doomed. Think of butterfly adults as a bottleneck, through which
> the entire population must pass each generation...
> 
> 							Ken Philip
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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