A brief overview for the life cycle of the endangered Palos Verdes Blue butterfly.
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The Palos Verdes Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis) is exclusively found on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southern California. Much of the habitat of this butterfly has disappeared due to development. In the 1980s the last location for the Palos Verdes Blue was set aside as a park. It was then extirpated from the park when bulldozers removed all of the remaining butterflies' food plants, and thought to have gone extinct.
In the early 1990s the Palos Verdes Blue was discovered at the Military Installation at San Pedro. Originally the larvae of this butterfly were described to feed only on the leaves, flowers, and seeds of the rattlebox (Astragalus trichopodus). This butterfly has been recently found to also feed on Deerweed (Lotus scoparius).
In late winter to early spring, Palos Verdes Blue butterflies emerge from diapausing pupae and fly about the habitat at San Pedro. Males generally emerge before females, but there is overlap in emergence times. Once sexually mature, the males search for and mate with females. Mated females then search for oviposition sites. Females generally prefer young deerweed plants (Lotus scoparius) and oviposit upon flower and leaf buds. They will often bury their eggs deep within the buds.
Three to five days later (depending on temperature) the young larvae eclose and begin to feed upon the flower and leaf buds. The larvae go through four instars while feeding upon flower and leaf buds. As the larvae get larger, carpenter ants (Camponotis species) will tend Palos Verdes Blue larvae in a symbiotic or mutualistic relationship. The ants protect the larvae against predators and parasites. Butterfly larval parasites generally kill the larvae so this protection helps the larvae survive.
In return, the Palos Verdes Blue larvae provide the carpenter ants with nutritive rewards, which consist of amino acids and sugars. The butterfly larvae also use the ants' pheromone communication system to their advantage. The larvae have eversible tubes which produce semiochemicals that mimic ant alarm pheromones, while body lenticles of the larvae have semiochemicals that mimic brood pheromone. The butterfly's brood pheromone mimic makes the ants think that the Palos Verdes Blue larvae are ant larvae. There are probably other semiochemicals that are mimicking other ant pheromones.
After about three to four weeks the larvae mature and go through a wandering stage in search of a pupation site. It is believed that the ants follow the larvae in this wandering stage and continue to protect the larvae into pupation. The preferred pupation sites for the Palos Verdes Blue are still not known.
A diapausing chrysalis can be thought of as a bag of fluid with floating imaginal disks. Many other butterflies that diapause in the chrysalis stage will enter diapause as nearly-formed adults within the chrysalis. Diapause in the Palos Verdes Blue is obligate, meaning that all larvae that pupate will enter diapause.
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Blue Butterfliesby 4greennature16,093 views
great video
oshri8 11 months ago