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Volume 29, Number 4
261
scale deformity involving all four wings. The aberration involved extensive loss of scales, with those remaining being restricted largely to the veins. Also the scale pockets were abnormal, a fact to which Dornfeld attributed the loss of scales. The aberration of Asterocampa clyton involved no apparent loss of scales. Both specimens, however, exhibit the same type of scale aberration (narrowed and elongated rather than fan-shaped, and having the distal prolonged margins ill-defined, reduced or lacking). Dornfeld observed that the individual of Anthocaris sara displayed weak flight, which was not the case with the individual of Asterocampa clyton. Dornfeld speculates that this aberration may have a low survival rate due to its weak flight pattern, and thus it has not been collected more frequently in the field.
Restricted deformities such as that displayed by the specimen of Asterocampa clyton are probably not gametic in origin, and thus survival rate would have no effect on the frequency of occurrence of such aberrations. Thus, a low frequency of occurrence of scalation aberrations in the field would persist, and the chances of encountering such an aberration would remain more or less constant with time. Apparently scalation aberrations are rare in nature and thus encounters are rare. However, chance field-capture of the restricted scale-deformed specimen of Asterocampa clyton has shown that scalation aberrations do occur occasionally; thus, additional field-captured specimens possessing scalation deformities should appear in the future.
The specimen of Asterocampa clyton is located in the personal collection of the author.
Harold N. Greenbaum, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611.2
-Present address: Department of Entomology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701.
ASSOCIATION OF ANTS WITH OVIPOSITING LYCAENA RUB1DUS
(LYCAENIDAE)
Many species of Lycaenidae associate to varying degrees with ants (Ford, 1957, Butterflies, Collins: London; Malicky, 1970, J. Lepid. Soc. 24: 190-202; Owen, 1971, Tropical Butterflies, Oxford: Clarendon Press). While some ant-lycaenid interactions have been observed in detail, many associations are known from scanty data. This paper reports another ant-lycaenid association, the first such instance reported for either species involved.
Adults of Lycaena rubidus (Behr) were observed 22 July 1968 at Maverick, el. 2377 m, Apache County, Arizona. The butterflies were common at the abandoned townsite in a grassy meadow bisected by Pacheta Creek. Many female L. rubidus exhibited oviposition behavior at wild-rhubarb, Rumex hymenosepalus Torr. (Polyg-onaceae). Each such female hovered near a plant, and then alighted on one of the leaves. She then walked down the leaf toward the base of the plant. Upon reaching a height about 2-8 cm above ground, she laid an egg, which fell to the substrate, sometimes bouncing on one or more leaves of the plant on its way. The ground was covered by a sparse layer of dead plant matter. After laying each egg, the female then walked back out toward the top of the plant. She then either sat for a minute or more before going back down to lay another egg, or flew to another plant. Each egg was laid singly.
Small black ants, Formica altipetens Wheeler, were observed on the ground litter beneath, as well as on, some of the Rumex plants. When one butterfly laid an egg,
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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
one of the ants on the ground litter changed the direction of its movement and ran about 2 cm from its former position over to the egg. The ant grasped the egg and carried it off. This phenomenon was then observed on two more occasions.
For the next 30 minutes, a female Lycaena rubidus was followed as she oviposited at three nearby (within 1 m) plants. She laid 14 eggs, 5 of which were picked up by ants on the ground. In two instances, single ants on the plants followed the butterfly as she descended the plants' leaves. In both instances the ant seized the egg as soon as it emerged from the butterfly and before it fell to the ground.
Two other female L. rubidus were subsequently observed as they oviposited in a similar manner. Several times eggs were picked off the ground and carried away by single ants. Three times ants seized eggs as soon as they were extruded by the butterfly.
The ants' behavior in following an ovipositing female butterfly suggests that the ants have the ability to anticipate oviposition. Ants were not observed to enter their nest(s) with butterfly eggs, and were not followed more than a few cm from the base of a plant. Whether these observations indicate predation or a more complex association is not known. The life history of L. rubidus is unknown, except for a report by Brown, Eff, & Rotger (1955, Proc. Denver Mus. Nat. Hist. 5: 152) that larvae were found feeding on Rumex sp. in Colorado. Formica altipetens was found tending aphids in North Dakota by Wheeler & Wheeler (1963, The Ants of North Dakota, Grand Falls: Univ. N. D. Press).
Ant specimens were deposited in the collections of Northern Arizona University and the National Museum of Natural History, and butterfly specimens in those of the Museum of Northern Arizona and the author.
Acknowledgments
These observations were made during a biotic survey of the White Mountains region of eastern Arizona conducted by the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff. I thank: W. B. McDougall for identifying the Rumex; D. R. Smith for identifying the ants; C. D. Johnson and R. I. Sailer for assistance; and L. E. Brown, C. R. Carroll, J. R. Heitzman, D. H. Janzen, K. Roever, and W. H. Wagner for reviewing the manuscript.
Richard S. Funk, Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois 61761.
RECORDS OF CALEPHELIS WRIGHTI (RIODINIDAE) IN SOUTHWESTERN ARIZONA
McAlpine (1961, in Ehrlich & Ehrlich, How to Know the Butterflies) and Emmel & Emmel (1973, The Butterflies of Southern California) include western Arizona in the range of Calephelis wrighti Holland. No specific localities have been published, and inquiries to experienced regional collectors and museums yielded no Arizona records. Eventually, David L. Bauer kindly provided the following records, which do confirm the presence of C. wrighti in southwestern Arizona:
ARIZONA: Yuma County. Gila Mountains, Telegraph Pass (1980') ll-xi-1946 (1 $ ex larva), 20-iii-46 (1 $), 21-ii-47 (19). Dome Canyon 22-x-46 (1 9), ll-ii-47 (1 $ 3 $ ), 24-ii-47 (19), 19-iii-47 (1 $ ). Sheep Hole Canyon 9-iii-47 (2 $). Castle Dome Plain, 18-ii-47 (19), 25-iii-47 (3339). Castle Dome Mountains, Castle Dome Canyon 18-ii-47 (1 $), 13-iv-47 (2 $ 3 9), 23-iv-47 (1 9 ex larva).
Bauer also provided a single record from California: