Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T14:42:10.750Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Egg-laying Habits of Lepidoptera in Relation to Available Food

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

V. G. Dethier
Affiliation:
Zoological Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pennsylvania

Extract

Entomologists interested in population dynamics have devoted considerable attention to the numbers of eggs laid by various species of insects, the mortality and non-viability of eggs, and mortality in young larvae; but there is another aspect of the problem which has received less attention than it deserves. This is the necessity for females to place their eggs sufficiently close to an adequate supply of food to insure the growth and development of the F, generation. Fulfillment of this requirement is particularly important for those species whose larvae are restricted feeders, that is, monophagous or oligophagous. It is generally assumed that the continued existence of a species is evidence that the eggs are always properly placed. As a consequence of this assumption very few quantitative studies have been undertaken, with the result that the contribution of the adult's behaviour to the degree of survival in larval populations is unknown. The following field studies were undertaken to supply some information on this score.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dethier, V. G. 1940. Life histories of Cuban Lepidoptera. Psyche 47: 1426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dethier, V. G. 1941. Metamorphoses of Cuban Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae Psyche 48: 7078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dethier, V. G. 1944. Notes on the immature stages of Urbanus tessellata occidentalis Skin. Bull. S. Calif. Acad. Sci. 43: 3032.Google Scholar
Dethier, V. G. 1953. Host plant perception in phytophagous insects. Trans. IXth Internat. Congress. Entom. Amsterdam 2: 8188.Google Scholar
Dethier, V. G. 1959. Food-plant distribution and density and larval dispersal as factors affecting insect populations. Canad. Ent. (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickerson, E. I., and Weiss, H. B.. 1920. The insects of the evening primroses in New Jersey. J. N.Y. Ent. Soc. 27: 3274.Google Scholar
Fitch, A. 1868. Twelfth Report on the noxious, beneficial and other insects of the State of New York. Trans. N.Y. State Agri. Soc. Part II. V. 27: 889932.Google Scholar
French, G. H. 1884. Notes on the larva of Euchaetes egle Clem. Canad. Ent. 16: 221222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portier, P. 1949. La biologie des lépidoptères. Encyclopédie Entomologique XXIII, p. 26. (Lechevalier, P. ed.) Jouve & Cie, Paris. 643 pp.Google Scholar
Rougeot, P. C. 1949. Description des stades post-embryonnaires de quelques saturnioides gabonais. Bull. Mensuel Soc. Linn. Lyon 18(10): 208217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, W. 1869. Notes on Alaria florida Guen. Canad. Ent. 2: 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, W. 1871. Notes on the egg and young larva of Alaria florida. Canad. Ent. 3: 76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Son, G. 1955. The butterflies of Southern Africa. Part II. Nymphalidae: Danainae and Satyrinae. ix + 166 Pretoria.Google Scholar
Villiers, A. 1957. Les Lépidoptères de l'Afrique Noire Française. 1: 1–84. Institut Français de l'Afrique Noire Initiations Africaines XIV, Dakar.Google Scholar