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Selection and Host Overlap in Two Desert Papilio Butterflies
Author(s) -
Emmel Thomas C.,
Emmel John F.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1934679
Subject(s) - biology , sympatric speciation , lepidoptera genitalia , competition (biology) , host (biology) , larva , ecology , range (aeronautics) , population , butterfly , interspecific competition , zoology , materials science , demography , sociology , composite material
The two California desert Papilio (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) species, P. indra fordi Comstock & Martin and P. rudkini Comstock, are frequently sympatric in range but mutually exclusive in host plant source. In 1966, optimal rainfall conditions led to a large simultaneous emergence of the adults of both species, synchronizing the growth of the resulting larvae, and larvae of both species switched to feeding on both foodplants wherever defoliation of the usual foodplant had already occurred from earlier larval feeding. By feeding on different foodplants in years of normal population levels, larval competition is avoided and many host plants remain unused. But apparently when population peaks are reached simultaneously, the selective advantage of separate hosts breaks down and direct competition through foodplant overlap occurs.