Lycaenid Butterflies and Ants: Selection for Enemy-Free Space

摘要: Many lycaenid butterflies counter attacks from natural enemies by associating with protective ants. The acquisition of this enemy-free space has strongly influenced evolution. Four major adaptations are discussed: the thick larval cuticle, appeasement pheromones, nectar gland associated tentacles, and location ants ovipositing adults. nectary is hypothesized to have a sequestering function when food not immediately coincident, release sheltering behavior that reduces pupal apparency. In facultative ant relationships may also appease "unknown" When often absent or nonfunctional. Lycaenid larvae eat diversity unrelated foods, including flowering plants, fungi, lichens, cycads, ferns, conifers, homopterans, larvae. They "milk" homopterans fed orally These dietary shifts apparently conditioned d...