Butterfly larval host plant use in a tropical urban context: Life history associations, herbivory, and landscape factors

Tiple, Ashish D.; Khurad, Arun M.; Dennis, Roger L.H.. 2011 Butterfly larval host plant use in a tropical urban context: Life history associations, herbivory, and landscape factors. Journal of Insect Science, 11, 65.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract/Summary

This study examines butterfly larval host plants, herbivory and related life history attributes within Nagpur City, India. The larval host plants of 120 butterfly species are identified and their host specificity, life form, biotope, abundance and perennation recorded; of the 126 larval host plants, most are trees (49), with fewer herbs (43), shrubs (22), climbers (7) and stem parasites (2). They include 89 wild, 23 cultivated, 11 wild/cultivated and 3 exotic plant species; 78 are perennials, 43 annuals and 5 biannuals. Plants belonging to Poaceae and Fabaceae are most widely used by butterfly larvae. In addition to distinctions in host plant family affiliation, a number of significant differences between butterfly families have been identified in host use patterns: for life forms, biotopes, landforms, perennation, host specificity, egg batch size and ant associations. These differences arising from the development of a butterfly resource database have important implications for conserving butterfly species within the city area. Differences in overall butterfly population sizes within the city relate mainly to the number of host plants used, but other influences, including egg batch size and host specificity are identified. Much of the variation in population size is unaccounted for and points to the need to investigate larval host plant life history and strategies as population size is not simply dependent on host plant abundance.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Programmes:	CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biodiversity
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	UKCEH Fellows
ISSN:	1536-2442
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Access full text by clicking on the OFFICIAL URL link
Additional Keywords:	India, Lepidoptera, habitat, host specificity, life form, biotope, perennation, oviposition, vegetation structure, landforms
NORA Subject Terms:	Zoology Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	27 Feb 2012 16:51 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/16777

Actions (login required)

View Item

Document Downloads

More statistics for this item...