1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Coevolution Between Plants and Insects ---- Behavioral Ecology of Nectar Feeding in Swallowtail Butterflies ----.
| Project/Area Number |
01540545
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
生態学
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| Research Institution | Mie University |
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Principal Investigator |
WATANABE Mamoru Mie University. Faculty of Education. Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (80167171)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1989 – 1990
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| Keywords | Sugar concentration / Swallowtail butterflies / Pierid butterflies / Fecundity / Number of mature eggs / longevity |
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| Research Abstract |
A laboratory-reared population of virgin female of Papilio xuthus was reared with sugar solution of 5 different concentrations as a diet and compared their potential fecundity. The sugar solution included fructose, glucose and sucrose. Except unfed females, they were fed during 3 min every day. The abdominal cavity of the females just after emergence was filled mostly with fat bodies, with little air sac. The fat body became gradually depleted and the air sac increased with age, filling half of the abdominal cavity in 10-day-old females. Weight loss in unfed females diroctly proportional to time since emergence. The fresh weight of the 8-day-old females that just fell dead was reduced to 43% of that of 0-day-old ones. Females that fed sugar solution of 0.1% and 1% became light as age. The weight of females feeding sugar solution of 10% remained constant throughout the experimental period, while those feeding sugar solution of 20% and 50% became heavy with age. Few newly emerged females (= 0-day-old) fed little water. They also fed a little of sugar solution of 0.1% and 1%. Females of 0-day-old fed about 140 mg of sugar solution of 10%. Almost no mature eggs were added in the females feeding 0.1% and 1% and 1% sugar solutions. In young ages, there seemed to be no relation between the number of mature eggs and the accumulated sugar intake. Young females may probably mature their eggs using energy acquired during the larval stages rather than sugar solutions. The fat body seems to be a major energy resource to mature eggs and to maintain herself. Since the fat body was decreased with age, however, old females would exclusively depend upon the sugar as energy as resource.
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