Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)
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CONSERVATION BIOLOGY OF Mitoura gryneus sweadneri (LEPIDOPTERA: LYCAENIDAE) By JAMES AKERS PENCE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2005 Copyright 2005 by James Akers Pence To Linda Pence: my best friend, my mirror, my wife, and my most dedicated field assistant ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I thank my wife Linda Pence for her support and encouragement in this work. I thank John V. Calhoun and Marc C. Minno for sharing specimens and personal observations about the butterfly. I thank Dr. Kurt Johnson for his work on the Mitoura that provided background and a studied perspective on the butterfly. I especially appreciate J. D. Turner of Huntsville, Alabama for his help in collecting Mitoura g. gryneus for my captive colonies and for cutting and sending fresh cedar to feed them all. I thank Dr. Jacqueline Y. Miller for confirming my microscopic discoveries. I thank Dr. Thomas C. Emmel for chairing my committee and Dr. Frank Slansky, Dr. James E. Maruniak, Dr. James E. Lloyd, and Dr. Jonathan Reiskind for evaluating this work. I thank Frank Cone, Steven P. Gilly, and Don West for their oral history of the Florida Division of Forestry. I thank Dr. T. J. Walker for the loan of temperature data loggers. I appreciate Jerry Wenzel and Nick Hostettler for help with field equipment. I owe a debt of gratitude to Deborah A. Hall, who helped me through the bureaucracy of graduate school; and to my friends Dennis and Rebekah Mahoney, who provided invaluable assistance and computer expertise without which the project would not have become a reality. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................iv LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................xi ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIES AND RELATED TAXA......................... 1 Higher Taxonomy of the Lycaenidae.............................................................. 5 Genus Mitoura.............................................................................................. 10 Genus Callophrys......................................................................................... 11 Original Description and Taxonomic History of Mitoura sweadneri .............. 13 Mitoura sweadneri ................................................................................. 15 Mitoura gryneus sweadneri.................................................................... 16 Mitoura grynea sweadneri ..................................................................... 16 Mitoura gryneus..................................................................................... 16 Callophrys (Mitoura) gryneus smilacis ................................................... 16 Callophrys (Mitoura) gryneus sweadneri ............................................... 17 Callophrys gryneus sweadneri............................................................... 17 Other Possible Names........................................................................... 17 Related Taxa and Their Host Plants ............................................................ 19 2 LIFE HISTORY............................................................................................. 23 Methods and Materials of Life History Study: Immature Stages................... 26 Eggs............................................................................................................. 31 Size........................................................................................................ 32 General Appearance.............................................................................. 32 Ultrastructure ......................................................................................... 36 Period in Ovum...................................................................................... 38 First Instar .................................................................................................... 39 General Appearance.............................................................................. 40 Head Capsule........................................................................................ 43 Duration ................................................................................................. 44 v Second Instar............................................................................................... 44 Second Head Capsule........................................................................... 46 Duration ................................................................................................. 47 Molting Notes......................................................................................... 48 Third Instar................................................................................................... 50 Third Head Capsule............................................................................... 51 Duration ................................................................................................. 53 Fourth Instar................................................................................................. 53 Fourth Head Capsule............................................................................. 56 Duration ................................................................................................. 57 Last Instar .................................................................................................... 57 The Feeder ............................................................................................ 60 The Wanderer........................................................................................ 62 Crawl off test ................................................................................... 63 Burrowing test ................................................................................. 64 The Prepupa.......................................................................................... 66 Final Head Capsule ............................................................................... 67 Duration ................................................................................................. 69 Pupa............................................................................................................. 70 Development and Duration .................................................................... 72 Eclosion strategy............................................................................. 73 Burrowing test revisited ................................................................... 75 Audio Observations ............................................................................... 76 Desiderata ............................................................................................. 79 Adults In Vitro............................................................................................... 79 Sex Ratio ............................................................................................... 81 Size........................................................................................................ 81 Diet and Longevity................................................................................. 82 Fecundity ............................................................................................... 86 Captive Copulation ................................................................................ 88 Larval Host................................................................................................... 93 Specific Taxonomy ................................................................................ 94 Larval Host Specificity ........................................................................... 98 Anthropocentric Utility of Cedar ........................................................... 100 Medicinal uses .............................................................................. 101 Other uses..................................................................................... 101 Florida Cedar Today............................................................................ 103 Life History Field Study: Adults in Situ ....................................................... 108 The Literature ...................................................................................... 111 Methods and Materials of Life History Field Study............................... 112 Data collected ............................................................................... 112 Effort.............................................................................................. 116 Results of Field Work........................................................................... 120 Analysis of Field Study ........................................................................ 126 Tree dimensions............................................................................ 126 Tree sex ........................................................................................ 129 vi Phenology ....................................................................................