A Lycaenid Butterfly (<i>Anthene amarah</i> Guerin) selects unseasonal young <i>Acacia</i> shoots for oviposition

Abstract

Felling experiments on the indigenous thorn tree Acacia tortilis in the northern Transvaal revealed that Anthene amarah butterflies oviposit on unseasonal new coppice shoots. Felling resembles damage caused by large browsing mammals in that it modifies the normal phenological rhythms of trees, and in this way apparently extends the period during which high quality food is available to herbivorous insects such as A. amarah.