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- Title
Breeding success and survivorship in some tropical butterflies.
- Authors
Young, Allbn M.
- Abstract
Age-specific fecundity (breeding success) and survivors hip were measured in the laboratory for several American tropical butterflies. Parides anus, Parides childrenae, Papilio anchisiades, Papillo polydamus, Victorina steneles, Victorina epaphus, Perrhybris lypera, and Anartia fatima. With the exception of A. fatima, a species of secondary habitats, all of these butterflies which are primary forest inhabitants, possessed fecundity and survivorship curves predicted for tropical organisms well integrated within stable communities. The physiological lifespan of these butterflies were long, and fecundities were low and spread out evenly over adult life. In A. fatima, mortality was generally high beyond the early adult age classes, and with fecundity largely concentrated during these age classes. It is suggested that such a pattern of breeding success and survivorship adaptations is characteristic for a colonizing species. Data on adult survivorship in natural populations of these butterflies suggest that, with the exception of A. fatima, biotic mortality factors such as predation do not distort age specific fecundity and survivorship patterns as measured in the laboratory.
- Subjects
BUTTERFLIES; ANIMAL breeding; RARE butterflies; DEATH rate; FERTILITY decline; BIOTIC communities; PHYSIOLOGY
- Publication
Oikos, 1972, Vol 23, Issue 3, p318
- ISSN
0030-1299
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3543170