Courtship of butterflies

Courtship

Courtship of butterflies involves a variety of behavioral, physiological and biochemical mechanisms. A male butterfly actively searches for the female, using mainly visual stimuli. Such visual stimuli may be in the form of colour, ultra-violet light reflections, iridescence, size, shape or any moving object like falling leaves. The female’s colour is not very important. Visual stimuli will be followed by olfactory stimuli to excite the female by releasing pheromone produced from the androconia on forewings of the males. Next the male moves round in short stages to make contact with the female’s abdomen. If the female is receptive, she raises her wings slightly and uncovers the tip of her abdomen and matting takes place at the first attempt, while mating is in progress, one of the pair usually flies, clumsily dragging along the other, who hangs passively. In members of the genus Papilio, however , both move the wings as they cling breast to breast , the one on the bottom beating them more slowly , an almost impossible effort at cooperation for any other organism.

Most male pheromones are effective only over short distance and act by making the females receptive fro mating or by inhibiting her from flying. In males, the glandular structures producing pheromones are located on the wings, the legs, the thorax or the abdomen in the form of androconia or brush like tufts or hairs. The tufts of hairs are usually protected inside abdominal pouches and emerge only during courtship. Such brush like tufts is common in Euploea core core. Mating activity normally lasts a little over an hour and then the sexes separate.

Terittoriality and Patrolling