Mud-puddling

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mud-puddling is the phenomenon mostly seen in butterflies and involves their aggregation on wet soil, dung and carrion to obtain nutrients such as sodium and amino acids.[1] This behaviour has also been seen in some other insects, notably the leafhoppers.[2]

This behaviour is restricted to males in many species and in some species the presence of butterflies on the ground acts as a stimulus for their aggregation.[3]

In tropical India this phenomenon is mostly seen in the post-monsoon season. The groups can include several species including the Papilionids and Pierids.[4]

Males seem to benefit from the mud-puddling behaviour with an increase in reproductive success.[5] The collected sodium and amino acids are often transferred to the female during mating as a nuptial gift. This nutrition helps in believed to enhance the survival rate of the eggs.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Beck J., E. Mühlenberg, K. Fiedler. 1999. Mud-puddling behavior in tropical butterflies: In search of proteins or minerals? Oecologia. 119:140–148.
  2. ^ Adler P. H. 1982. Nocturnal occurrences of leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) at soil. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 55: 73–74.
  3. ^ B. Locke, Gard W. Otis, Nicole G. McKenzie, D. Cheung, E.C. MacLeod, and A. Kwoon (2003) Mud puddling Papilio and Battus swallowtail butterflies (Papilionidae) have different mechanisms for social facilitation. 2003 ESA Annual Meeting Poster. [1] Accessed December 2006
  4. ^ P.G. SREEKUMAR & M. BALAKRISHNAN (2001) Habitat and altitude preferences of butterflies in Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala. Tropical Ecology 42(2):277-281
  5. ^ Pivnik K, J. N. McNeil. 1987. Puddling in butterflies: sodium affects reproductive success in Thymelicus lineola. Physiol. Entomol. 12:461–472.
  6. ^ Molleman F., Zwaan B. J., and P. M. Brakefield. 2004. The effect of male sodium diet and mating history on female reproduction in the puddling squinting bush brown Bicyclus anynana (Lepidoptera). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 56: 404–411. <ref>Medley S. R. and T. Eisner. 1996. Sodium: a male nuptial gift to its offspring. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. 93: 809–813.</li></ol></ref>
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/u/d/Mud-puddling.html"