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A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF MORTALITY IN PAPILIO TROILUS (PAPILIONIDAE) POPULATIONS IN EASTERN TEXAS
While collecting Papilio troilus (L.) eggs in the vicinity of the Hardin town dump in Hardin Co., Texas, on 21 March 1972, several trails of leaf-cutter worker ants were observed carrying pieces of leaves to their nests presumably for culture medium for their fungal "gardens" (Creighton, 1950, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard Univ. 104: 325-329). These ants were kindly determined by Dr. Wm. L. Brown, Jr. to be Atta texana (Buckley). One of the small shrubs which was rapidly being defoliated of its succulent spring growth of leaves was Sassafras albidum (Nutt.), which was also the main plant species being utilized for oviposition by P. troilus. While looking at one particular sassafras plant I was able to rescue a troilus egg on an excised leaf section that was actually being carted off down the stem by an ant and three more eggs on leaves certainly destined for the same outcome. The probable fate would have been death, but the proximate source of mortality could have been any of several, including desiccation, predation by ants, or fungal attack of either eggs or larvae. These eggs and the resulting larvae were instead reared through to P. troilus adults on Sassafras albidum in Ithaca, New York. Specimens of P. troilus and Atta texana from these Hardin County populations have been deposited in The Cornell University Collection: Lot 1023, sublot 13b.
J. Mark Scriber, Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.