The Food Consumption, Utilization and Life History Traits of some Endemic & Endangered Butterflies in the Eastern Ghats - Southern Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Life history parameters such as pattern of egg laying, hatching, larval &pupal period and the total period from egg to emerge adult of 11 butterfly species distributed at Seshachalam Bio-reserve forest, Thalakona, “Sri Lankamalleswara wild life sanctuary and Yogi Veman University, Kadapa are described during the period from 2013 -2016. Larval performance with respect to consumption index (CI) growth rate and estimation of nutritional indices like approximate digestibility (AD), efficiency of conversation of digested food (ECI) was presented.11butterfly species lay single eggs. The hatching, larval and pupal periods and eventually the total period for the growth of egg to the emergencies of an adult are longer (39-43 days) in Grapium nomious than other Papilionids and taxonomic groups. The larvae of each of the 11 species pass through five instars and the last two instars have a major share of total consumed over the entire larval period. The consumption index (CI) values of these instars ranged from 0.60 to 3.50. Among the five instars, the first shows the highest CI in all the 11 butterfly species and the values tend to decrease progressively through the successive instars. The AD value was highest in the first instar and lowest in the fifth instar. The values ranging from 86 to 99.5%. The ECD values show a general decrease from the early to the last instars. The ECI values range from 11-70% for Hasora chromus and from 03-64% for others, with most falling between 10% and 20%.The under-representation of invertebrates in defence efforts was well conventional. Inherent in this bias are issues concerning funding, agency staff expertise, political priorities, and public perception all of which generally do not favour insects, even popular groups such as butterflies and moths. Effective coordination, cooperation, and involvement between major stakeholders are essential to achieving actions that significantly benefit wildlife in these situations. Variation in food stoichiometry affects separable performance and population dynamics, but it was also likely that species with altered life histories should differ in their compassion to food stoichiometry. To address this question, we investigated the ability of the 11feeding butterflies food energetics to find out its larval performance.