Cup Reus Snowi (Edwards). the Fonner Butterfly Is Nolmally Associated with Ridge Tops in Foothill Areas

VOLUME 28, NUMBER 2 167 cup reus snowi (Edwards). The fonner butterfly is nOlmally associated with ridge tops in foothill areas. This is certainly the case in the eastern Sierra Nevada and in Colorado and Wyoming. Occasionally specimens are taken at lower elevations at puddles following a rain shower. My initial experiences with indra and other subspecies confirmed that they occupy the barren ridge habitat where certain of the larval foodplants, Umbellifereae, grow. During the summer of 1972, I found that i. indra is a moist meadow flier in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Specimens were taken flying and nectaring in Transition Zone meadows at 7100 ft. The Idaho locality was about two degrees further north in latitude than the most northern point in Wyoming where I have taken indra. Lycaena cup reus snowi is recorded in Colorado only from above timberline (ca. 10,000 ft. and above) where it flies next to the snow fields (Brown et al. 1957, Colorado Butterflies, Denver, Colo.). Just to the north, in Wyoming, the butterfly is generally taken in the Upper Transition and Canadian Zones in open meadows. I have taken a few specimens at timberline in the Wind River Mountains and on the Beartooth Plateau, but most specimens have been taken at much lower eleva tions. In the Sawtooth Range in Idaho, I have found snowi relatively common in open meadows at 7100 ft. In conclusion, I would make three points. First, different subspecies of a butter fly may be found in widely disparate habitats, in different parts of North America. Second, based upon observations from one locality, one cannot make inferences concerning other regions without a thorough knowledge of all of the environmental variables involved. Third, in some instances, "micro-environments" may be the dominant factor controlling species distributions, as in the Mexican race of Speyeria nokomis. (This note is published with the approval of the Director, Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station, as Journal Article JA 595.) CLIFFORD D. FERRIS, College of Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071. (Research Associate, Allyn Museum of Entomology, Sarasota, Florida; Museum Associate, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, California) LEPIDOPTERA FEEDING AT PUDDLE-MARGINS, DUNG AND CARRION I would like to make a few additions to J. A. Downes' paper under this title (1973, J. Lepid. Soc. 27: 88-99). I discussed this question on more than one occasion with Collenette, and he often said that he was of the opinion that the attraction of damp mud lay in the mineral salts in general, and probably in the sodium chloride in particular, contained therein. I have two pieces of evidence that would appear to support this opinion. When collecting at Lech-am-Arlberg in Austria in 1958, it was noticed that, whilst the damp mud surrounding puddles fonned in the mountain paths after a storm were highly attractive to butterflies, the damp mud at the side of permanent trickles of water crossing the same paths were always completely deserted. Presumably the mud round the puddles would be heavily impregnated with mineral salts leached out of the surrounding soil, whilst mud beside pennanent trickles would have had everything washed out. Again in Africa it is noticeable that the attraction of damp mud increases with the distance from the sea. In the Shimba Hills I have only found Anthene lasti Sm. & Kby. ( Lycaenidae) at damp mud; the nymphalids that feed at damp mud are the same species that are attracted to fermented fruit baits and, as both sexes are present, the attraction is obviously juices from rotten fruit that has fallen from the trees bordering the path. In the actual coastal forest at Jadini, situated within a mile 168 JOURNAL OF THE LEPIDOPTERISTS' SOCIETY from the sea, and in the Arabuku-Sekoke Forest, males of the various Papilio and Graphium species (Papilionidae) and Appias sabina Feld. (Pieridae) occur at damp mud, but nothing else. Both the latter forests are far more sheltered and less windy than the forests of the Shimba Hills. Compare this very meagre list with the number of species recorded in the Kenya Highlands and Western Uganda when motoring through in 1960: Kenya Highlands (Danaidae 3, Acraeidae 3, Nymphalidae 2, Lycaenidae 11, Pieridae 5, Papilionidae 1); Western Uganda (Danaidae 5, Acraeidae 0, Nymphalidae 5, Lycaenidae 7, Pieridae 9, Papilionidae 3). (A full list of species will be found in 1962, Entomologist 95: 17-18). It is, perhaps, noteworthy that not a single hesperiid was recorded, as this is the family concerned in all the records of butterflies settling on human skin, exuding a drop of fluid from the anus, and then sucking it up through the proboscis. It is suggested that butterflies in the coastal areas absorb enough salt with their food as larvae, the shore level forests being more sheltered, and so receiving less salt, than the more exposed forests in the Shimba Hills. The air all along the Kenya coast is heavily impregnated with salt, which is deposited as a thin film on windows and which causes heavy corrosion in metal fittings. I was surprised to read in Downes' paper that horse droppings were found tu increase the attractiveness of damp mud and water. In Africa the droppings of herbivorous animals, antelopes, buffalo and elephant for example, hold no at traction whatever, and it is only the droppings of carnivores that are attractive. I am not even certain that the faeces of the Canidae are attractive, as the droppings of my own dogs, which are fed mainly on meat, do not attract the Charaxes species that frequent my garden, but I have never come across the droppings of jackals or foxes in the bush. That there is some difference in the food requirements of male and female butterflies appears to be confirmed by the habits of the Charaxidae, where both sexes are attracted to fermenting fruit and sap but only the males to dung and carrion. Possibly there is some connection with the production of the female attracting scents secreted by the males. A very specialised case of this connection is the recently discovered necessity for the males of certain Danaidae to feed on the fermented juices of certain plants of the Boraginaceae before they can develop this scent. I have one example of male moths feeding at damp mud, a Semiothisa sp. (Geometridae) identified by the British Museum ( Natural History) as near fuscatal'ia Mschl., which was found in considerable numbers at mud puddles in a forest in Uganda. D. G. SEVASTOPULO, F.R.E.S., P.O. Box 95026, Mombasa, Kenya. LARVAL FOODPLANTS AND PARASITES OF SOME LEPIDOPTERA IN SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS A great deal of information is available concerning the larval foodplants and parasites of the more important lepidopterous pests in Arkansas. Little such in formation is available for Lepidoptera species not considered primary insect pests. With greater emphasis on pest management programs in recent years and increasing interest in biological control of pests, it is becoming more important to understand the relationships among animals and plants. In order to elucidate some of these relationships, the following study was conducted on or near the White River National Wildlife Refuge during the summer months of 1969 and 1970. The White River Refuge, a relatively undisturbed habitat, consists of portions .

Load more