Delayed ovarian maturation in the butterfly Hipparchia semele as a possible response to summer drought

.1 Several references indicate that the period of flight of the European satyrine butterfly Hipparchia semele (L.) (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) starts earlier in southern latitudes, where summers are longer and drier than in the north. However, summer drought has an adverse effect on the growth of grasses on which larval feeding depends. Growth of the grasses is delayed as long as the drought lasts. 2 From laboratory and field observations in a mid altitude area near the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, a mechanism that can be interpreted as an adjustment of this insect's life cycle to the host plant's phenology has been observed, i.e. delayed gonadal maturation of adult females. This delay is not associated with female diapause. Although the mean delay in oviposition after copulation was 43 days some captive females were able to oviposit much earlier, and this suggests variability in oviposition dates which might have an environmental or a genetic basis. 3 A mechanism of delayed ovarian maturation similar to that of H.semele is also known to occur in the satyrine Maniola jurtina (L.); it is suggested that this adaptation enables these species to occupy wider geographical ranges than other univoltine satyrines in Europe.