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Published:
May 12, 2020Updated:
2020-05-12DOI:
10.4314/met.v31i1.6Keywords:
Article Details
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Main Article Content
Peculiar behaviour of a female <i>Alaena margaritacea</i> (Eltringham, 1929) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Poritiinae)
Abstract
A female Alaena margaritacea was observed using her legs to groom grass blades on a slope, the type locality, near Haenertsburg, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The behaviour was video-recorded. The article describes the behaviour’s peculiarities and stages such as reiterative grooming at blade tips. Using extant literature, it posits two hypotheses for the behaviour’s function: that it involves territorial, sexual scent-marking or that it aims to repel competing feeders such as ants by the putative use of semiochemicals.
