Patterns of oviposition by Sandia xami (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) in relation to food plant apparency
- 1 February 1988
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Ecological Entomology
- Vol. 13 (1) , 71-79
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2311.1988.tb00334.x
Abstract
The butterfly Sandia xami (Reakirt) has a very clumped yearly pattern of oviposition on its food plant Echeveria gibbiflora D.C., and the mean number of eggs per plant is always very low. Three features of host plants are highly associated with the probability of being oviposited upon: height of plant; degree of conspicuousness; and degree of isolation from conspecific plants. The relative importance of these factors as predictors of the probability of oviposition change according to the time scale considered: height and conspicuousness are more important over short (weekly) time intervals whilst isolation takes precedence over longer (yearly) periods. It is hypothesized that the clumped pattern of oviposition is responsible for the low numbers of the butterflies relative to their very abundant food plant.Keywords
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