The queen butterfly ( Danaus gilippus ) is a North and South American butterfly in the Nymphalidae family with a wingspan of 70-88 mm (2.8-3.5 inches). Colored orange or brown with black wing borders and small white dots on the dorsal wing surface, and reddish ventral wing surface almost equal to the dorsal surface. The ventral backside has black blood vessels and small white spots on the black border. Males have patches of black androconial scent on dorsal hindwings. It is found throughout the tropics and to temperate regions of America, Asia and Africa. These can be found in pastures, fields, swamps, deserts, and on the edge of the forest.
This species may be relatively close to a similar colored army butterfly (or tropical queen; Danaus eresimus ); in any case, it is not close to the ordinary tiger ( Danaus chrysippus ) as long believed. There are seven subspecies.
Females lay eggs one after the other on larval host plants. Larvae use this plant as a food source, while adult butterflies feed primarily on the nectar of flowers. Uncertainty about bird predators is a feature of butterflies; However, the levels vary greatly. Uncertainty correlates with the level of cardenolides obtained through a diet of larvae, but other compounds such as alkaloids also play a role in promoting disgust.
Men patrolling for women, who may marry up to 15 times a day. The male organ called the hair pencil plays an important role in dating, with men with lower hair pencil levels selected. These hair pencils may be involved in removing pheromones during a courtship that can attract a female partner.
Video Queen (butterfly)
Taxonomy
The queen is a member of the genus Danaus , which includes D. plexippus (king) and D. eresimus (army). This is the Nymphalidae family of the Lepidoptera order. There are seven subspecies. It comes from Nearctic and Neotropical realms. The conservation status of these species is safe, with no reported management needs.
Maps Queen (butterfly)
Life cycle and morphology
Females put small white eggs one by one on larvae host plants, usually members of the Asclepiadoideae dairy sub group. The eggs hatch into black caterpillars with transverse white stripes and yellow spots, and three pairs of long black filaments. Caterpillars feed on host plants and confiscate chemicals that make them unpopular by some predators. Then pass through the six instar, after which the larvae find a suitable place to become a cocoon. Adults appear 7 to 10 days afterwards. The queen butterfly has several generations per year.
Egg
The queen butterfly leaves one egg at a time. Each individual egg can be found on the leaves, stems, and buds of the host's flower. Eggs are usually pale green, but they can also be white. It has a cone-shaped conical shape, flat base and a slightly truncated top, and stripes perpendicular to the cross-line that culminates between the bulge. Compared to the king's butterfly, the queen's butterfly egg is higher than its width.
Caterpillar
Relatively, the adult caterpillar is darker and not as bright as the king.
At the larval stage, the queen is a bluish-white, with a reddish-brown bottom. It has three pairs of dark-fleshy tentacles - one above the head, one in the second thorax segment and one in the eighth abdominal segment - but less thorns. As an adult, the caterpillar with the purple prolegs. Caterpillars have been observed in the following transverse lines: blue, green, yellow, white, and dark brown. His head is black with a white ring. No hairs on the body of a caterpillar.
Pupa
The cocoon is relatively short and thick, tapering fast at the end of the stomach. The color is pale green, rarely pale pink, and often decorated with gold spots. Black ribbon across with gold in the stomach. Under this black belly ribbon is another one in blue. The cocoon has very little projection; especially, it was suspended by the long cremaster of the silk button. Thus, the pupa resembles a pendant.
In general, the cocoon of the queen is smaller and lighter than the king.
Butterflies
As an adult, the queen has two cousins ​​that have a striking resemblance: the more common king ( Danaus plexippus ) and the soldier ( Danaus eresimus ).
The queen is a sizable butterfly. It has an average wingspan of 3.1 inches (7.9 cm) to 3.3 inches (8.4 cm). He is easily distinguished from his cousin, the king, with the color of the dark brown soil. The queen has a closer resemblance to another cousin, a soldier ( Danaus eresimus ). It boasts a very strong and flexible chitinous exoskeleton, unlike most other butterflies.
The color of the wings varies from light brown, dark brown to rich brown, with black marginal bands adorned with white or yellow. The underside of the wing is designed like a top wing, except more pale. The queen has a vein that is less prominent on its wings and has no dark, apical shadow found in the kingdom. Forewing is generally much larger than rounded rounding.
Both sexes are morphologically similar. The male and female front lengths reach between 3.7 cm (1.5 inches) to 4.6 cm (1.8 in), with an average length of 4.2 centimeters (1.7 inches). Antenna has no scales. Although all danaids have two pairs of walking legs, front legs, the first pair is located in the prothoracic segment of the stomach, dwarfed and slightly used. The front legs are more atrophy in males than in females. The female uses its short front legs to scratch the leaf surface to determine which one is suitable as the host for its egg. In both sexes, only atrophic front legs that do not have claws.
However, the queen of men has special fillings of androconia, or scalp bags covered with scales, located on his back. The position and structure of androconia is used to identify different genera. Men also have one hair pencil that can be extended on each side of his stomach. Hair pencil, when in contact with the scales, spread pheromones near women at the indirect stages of successful courtship.
Distribution and habitat
The Queen belongs to the family ( Danaidae ) which is common both in the New World and the Old World, which is especially found throughout the tropics and in temperate regions of America, Asia, and Africa. Wild specimens are found in Europe. The queen is primarily a tropical species. In the US, it is usually limited to the southern part of the country. These can be found regularly on the Florida peninsula and southern Georgia, as well as in the southern parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Sometimes, the queen subspecies can be found in the north, in Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. Periodically, straying can be found in the Midwest, as in Missouri. The berenice subspecies are found mostly in the Southeast and strigosus in the Southwest. Queen also found in Cuba.
This is more common in South Central America, with an increasing number in Mexico. The queen can be found as far south as Argentina. Although the queen does not perform dramatic migration like kings, most travel short distances in tropical latitudes in areas that have different dry seasons. During that period, the queen will fly from the lowlands to the plateau.
Throughout its distribution, queens can be found in open land, in pastures, fields, and swamps. It displays a more xeric preference in Hispaniola and will fly to the edge, but rarely pierce, hammocks and woods. In the southern US, the queen prefers open woods, fields, and deserts. Most likely they are found wherever weeds grow.
Food sources and host plants
Host larvae and food source
The queen larvae feed on Apocynaceae (milkweeds and dogbanes). It can survive in a number of hosts. Common plants include butterflyweed ( Asclepias tuberosa ) and blood flowers ( Asclepias curassavica ). In West Indies, dulled leaf milkweed ( Asclepias amplexicaulis ) and honey vine ( Cynanchum laeve ) are preferred. Caterpillars have also been observed in Asclepias nivea , Calotropic procea , and Apocynaceae nerium . Other reported occupant genera include Apocynum, Gonolobus, Sarcostemma and Stapelia.
Adult food sources and host plants
As an adult, his eating habits are less specific. Butterflies eat mainly on the nectar of dead flowers and foliage, but can also eat fruits, sweat, and dry or wet dirt, among other substances.
Even as an adult, the queen is interested in milkweed (Apocynaceae). However, butterflies are also interested in Nerium , Funastrum , Vincetoxicum , Philabertia , Stapelia .
In addition to the above food sources, men interested in Heliotropium , Eupatorium , Senecio , and Crotalaria , crops are known containing lycopsamine alkaloids. Alkaloid compounds and other precursors of these plants are used to make pheromones used to attract pairs. Preliminary precursors are mostly obtained from Boraginaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae.
Defense
The queen is one of many insects that derive chemical defenses against its predators from its food crops. Most of the toxic cardenolides make the queen very uncomfortable for the exiled predators of the larval host plants.
Mimicry in defense derived from cardenolide
For some time, the queen has been considered very unpleasant for vertebrate predators (especially birds). This is due to the fact that the queen, like her king's cousin, feeds mostly on Asclepiads. Since the queen and the king are closely related, it is assumed that the queen also has the ability to effectively confiscate and store the cardenolides present in the milkweed. Thus, the young queen and king of Florida long regarded as an example of a classic-imitating model of Batesian mimicry, similar to the relationship shown by kings and kings.
However, the unexpected bird failure to resist consecutive queens in an experimental setting questions the legitimacy of this relationship. In fact, experimental evidence suggests that a Florida viceroy could be significantly more unpleasant than a representative queen. Since the experimental evidence indicating queen samples is significantly more unpleasant than viceroy, it is admitted that viceroy and queen of Florida are MÃÆ'¼llerian co-mimics. Furthermore, the evidence from this study led to the hypothesis that queens really enjoyed the asymmetric mimicry relationship, benefiting from flying in the relatively younger king's company.
Spectrum Palatability
Further experiments suggest that the chemical defenses of the queen are highly unstable. It shows that queens maintained in high cardenolide A. curassavica confiscate and store cardenolides levels similar to those found in kings. These butterflies are considered very unpleasant and mostly rejected by birds predators. Furthermore, those who are eaten create a high degree of distress behavior. However, the queen is preserved in S. clausum , a larvae host plant known as a very bad cardenolide source, contains no detectable cardenolide and is essentially suitable for predators. The highly variable response of bird predators to queens maintained on different plants shows a spectrum of palatability associated with food crops in the Florida queen's butterfly.
The micro-geographic differences in the environment cause variations in the dynamics of the mimesis relationship even at the local level. Spatiotemporal variations across different ecozones cause a big difference in the discontent queen's discretion only a few kilometers away. This wide variation supports the idea that automation occurs at the level of intrapopulation - the palatabel queen imitates individuals with higher cardenolide content. With extensions, interparts mimicry also varies greatly. On the inland hydric site, containing many of the curassavica, queens and viceroy are unlikely MÃÆ'¼llerian who imitate each other, while on queen beach sites may serve as a suitable Batesian of the viceroy.
Defense derived from noncardenolide
Queen unpalatability does not directly reflect either the food plant or the butterfly cardenolide content. Evidence suggests that the interactions of cardenolides and noncardenolides are used for chemical defense in milkweed butterflies.
Wild queens who were fed the S. clause as a larva but had access to compounds obtained by adults, such as pyrrolizidine (PA) alkaloids used for the production of pheromones, were observed to be significantly less suited for bird predators than butterflies butter without chemical defenses. Thus, these alkaloids, known to prevent spider predators, can contribute substantially to the queen's fortunes.
Married
Men patrol all day looking for women. Women can marry up to 15 times, a much higher number than other Lepidoptera members. Dating and mating usually occur in the afternoon. Once a male and a female couple, the butterfly may remain in pairs for more than an hour. Married couples often lean on the leaves above the tree. Then, the female will fly closer to the ground than usual to find a suitable host for the deposition of the egg.
Dating
During the courtship, which occurred when the two butterflies flew, the man pulled out his hair pencil and brushed it against the female antenna. This action is called "hair-pencil". The secretions associated with these hair pencils play an important role in seducing women. When the female comes to rest, the man hovers over it and directs it to further "pencil" before settling down next to the woman and copulate with her. After that, the two do a postnuptial flight - male flies with females hanging underneath.
Pheromones
Chemicals composed of pheromones are secreted by triccogen cells, located at the base of each hair-pencil. This secretion of fluid moves from these cells, through the hair cuticle, to coat the various free dust particles attached to the surface of the hair-pencil. Two of the chemicals that make up this secretion have been identified - pyrrolizidinone crystals (ketones) and thick terpenoid alcohol (diols). Diols instill a stickiness that allows the secretion to stay in the dust, and dust on the antenna. Ketones are pheromones releasers, encouraging females to mate. Although insufficient levels of ketone in dust particles are correlated with lower seductive capacity in males, some men with low levels of ketones - and even some without hair pencil - have managed to match with females. This suggests that although hair-pencil pheromones are very important, they are not absolutely essential for mating.
Importance of hair-pencil
Many butterflies have remarkable brush-like structures, called hair-pencils. In the queen, the hair-pencil, which is in the posterior stomach of a man, is stored when men do not interact with women. Thus, these organs are considered to serve as an important tool for the dissemination of pheromones during courtship.
Hair-pencil plays an important role in the success of courtship. Although the lack of hair pencil does not affect the level and enthusiasm with men chasing women, men without hair pencil experience much lesser success in achieving copulation. The male queen butterfly with a physically normal hair pencil but chemical shortage also suffers from lower marriage success. In addition, the adult female queen whose antenna has been blocked can not receive progress from a competent male queen. However, physical contact between a male hair pencil and a female antenna does not affect the success of male mating. Men without hair pencil are not less fertile than men with a hair pencil.
That actively men who shaved hair out a very clear odor that even the human can feel also support the idea that it is not the pencil-the hair itself is important in courtship, but rather, the pheromone carried by the hair-pencil.
References
External links
- The queen butterfly film (Tree of Life)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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