University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-16-2014 Comparative Biology of Three Species of Costa Rican Haeterini Laura Alexander University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Alexander, Laura, "Comparative Biology of Three Species of Costa Rican Haeterini" (2014). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1843. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1843 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Comparative Biology of Three Species of Costa Rican Haeterini A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Conservation Biology By Laura G. Alexander B.A. Stetson University, 1987 May 2014 Copyright 2014, Laura G. Alexander ii Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge Ann Cespedes, Isidro Chacón, Chevo Cascante, Anne Johnston Davis, Katherine Díaz, Jessica Edwards, Alex Figueroa, Cristian Miranda, Sergio Padilla, Emmanuel Rojas, and Danielle Salisbury for field assistance, and the staff of the Tirimbina Biological Reserve for logistical assistance and research facilities. I thank Witold Lapinski for help with spider identification, Carla Penz for advice on trap construction, and Melquisedec Gamba-Rios and Robinson Sudan for help with the trap placement figures. I also thank Charles Bell, Phil DeVries, Simon Lailvaux, Chris Nice, and Carla Penz for answering my questions, providing feedback, and improving previous drafts of this manuscript. I thank Phil DeVries in particular for his guidance in all matters pertaining to field work, research, and manuscript preparation. Thank you, as well, to my supportive family and friends, fellow graduate students, and the faculty and staff of University of New Orleans. This work was supported in part by University of New Orleans Graduate Student Enhancement Funds and a USDA cacao initiative grant to Phil DeVries from the Milwaukee Public Museum. iii Table of Contents List of Figures ......................................................................................................................v List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Life History Characteristics of Three Species of Costa Rican Haeterini ...........1 Chapter 2: Variation in Capture Height and Trap Persistence Among Three Costa Rican Understorey Butterfly Species ..........................................................................48 Chapter 3: Movement in Three Sympatric Rainforest Butterflies Show that Females Disperse and Males Move in Narrower Home Ranges .....................................56 Chapter 4: Recapture Probability and Daily Survival for Three Fruit-Feeding Understory Butterfly Species ...............................................................................................71 References ..........................................................................................................................91 Appendix A: Examples of Mark-Release-Recapture (MRR) Studies ..............................99 Appendix B: Hostplant Families for Three Species of Costa Rican Haeterini ................103 Appendix C: Sampling Calendars for 2009/2010 ............................................................106 Appendix D: Brief Descriptions of the Sampling Sites ..................................................108 Appendix E. Preliminary MRR Models: Underlying Time Structure .............................112 Appendix F: Goodness of Fit, Median ĉ, and Trap Dependence .....................................113 Appendix G: Distribution Among Sample Sites of Fruit-Feeding Nymphalids ..............116 Appendix H. Examples of Movement Patterns in Three Costa Rican Haeterini .............119 Appendix I. Comparative movement probabilities for three Costa Rican butterflies ......120 Appendix J. MRR Models with Covariates .....................................................................122 Appendix K. Estimated Recapture Probabilities .............................................................123 Appendix L. Post Hoc Estimated Recapture Probabilities ..............................................125 Appendix M. Daily Survival Probabilities.......................................................................126 Appendix N. Post Hoc Estimated Daily Survival Probabilities ......................................127 Appendix O. Distribution of Butterfly Abundance Among Sampling Occasions ...........128 Vita ...................................................................................................................................130 iv List of Figures Figure 1.1. Phylogenetic relationships of Haeterini genera .................................................3 Figure 1.2. Wing marks .......................................................................................................4 Figure 1.3. Map of Costa Rica showing life zones in various colors ..................................5 Figure 1.4. Map of the Sarapiquí River Basin .....................................................................6 Figure 1.5. GoogleEarth image of the inner portion of the Sarapiquí River basin ..............7 Figure 1.6. Tirimbina Biological Reserve, Heredia Province, Costa Rica ..........................8 Figure 1.7. Haeterini wing patterns......................................................................................9 Figure 1.8. Nymphalid butterfly abundance ......................................................................10 Figure 1.9. Pierella luna (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Haeterini) .........................................18 Figure 1.10. Long-distance movements by Pierella helvina .............................................20 Figure 1.11. Vertical trap placement..................................................................................22 Figure 1.12. Sampling sites and trap locations ..................................................................29 Figure 1.13. Trap locations along the Ajillo Ridge ...........................................................30 Figure 1.14. Wide spatial trap placement in 2011 .............................................................33 Figure 1.15. Secondary sampling sites ..............................................................................35 Figure 1.16. Abundance comparison between two studies ................................................38 Figure 1.17. Abundance comparison among years ............................................................39 Figure 1.18. Abundance comparison between early and late sampling occasions ............40 Figure 1.19. Antirrhea miltiades (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Morphini) abundance ..........42 Figure 1.20. Antirrhea miltiades movement distances ......................................................43 Figure 1.21. Spatial distributions of fruit-feeding Nymphalidae butterflies ................ 44-45 Figure 1.22. Abundance per sampling site for Cithaerias pireta ......................................46 Figure 3.1. Sampling locations and exemplar directional movements ..............................59 Figure 3.2. Box plots comparing median forewing lengths among species and sexes ......62 Figure 3.3. Distribution of recaptures across time .............................................................63 Figure 3.4. Distribution of recaptures across distance .......................................................64 Figure 3.5. Net distances ....................................................................................................65 Figure 3.6. Movement probabilities ...................................................................................67 Figure 3.7. Comparative movement probabilities..............................................................68 Figure 3.8. Probabilities of movement partitioned by species and sex ..............................69 Figure 4.1. Total rainfall (mm) for each sampling period (month) ...................................79 Figure 4.2. Butterfly abundance distributions among months and sites ............................80 Figure 4.3. Mean daily recaptures (± SE) per site .............................................................81 Figure 4.4. Butterfly recapture probabilities ......................................................................82 Figure 4.5. Lifespan and abundance ..................................................................................84 Figure 4.6. Estimates of daily survival (phi ± SE) for the three butterfly