Larval Food Limitation in a <i>Speyeria</i> Butterfly (Nymphalidae): How Many Butterflies Can Be Supported?

• Main Authors: Ryan I. Hill, Cassidi E. Rush, John Mayberry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
• Series: Insects
• Subjects: <i>Viola</i>; <i>Viola purpurea</i>; <i>Speyeria adiaste</i>; bottom–up; top–down; insect conservation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/9/4/179

For herbivorous insects the importance of larval food plants is obvious, yet the role of host abundance and density in conservation are relatively understudied. Populations of <i>Speyeria</i> butterflies across North America have declined and <i>Speyeria adiaste</i> is an imperiled species endemic to the southern California Coast Ranges. In this paper, we study the link between the food plant <i>Viola purpurea quercetorum</i> and abundance of its herbivore <i>Speyeria adiaste clemencei</i> to better understand the butterfly&#8217;s decline and aid in restoration of this and other <i>Speyeria</i> species. To assess the degree to which the larval food plant limits adult abundance of <i>S. a. clemencei</i> in 2013, we compared adult population counts to population size predicted from a Monte Carlo simulation using data for number of <i>V. pur. quercetorum</i> plants, number of leaves per plant, and leaf area per plant, with lab estimates of leaf area consumed to reach pupal stage on the non-native host <i>V. papilionacea</i>. Results indicated an average estimate of 765 pupae (median = 478), with 77% of the distribution being &lt;1000 pupae. However, this was heavily dependent on plant distribution, and accounting for the number of transect segments with sufficient host to support a pupa predicted 371 pupae. The adult population empirical estimate was 227 individuals (95% CI is 146 to 392), which lies near the first quartile of the simulated distribution. These results indicate that the amount of host <i>available</i> to larvae was more closely linked to adult abundance than the amount of host <i>present</i>, especially when considering assumptions of the analyses. The data also indicate that robust populations require host density well in excess of what is eaten by larvae, in combination with appropriate spacing, to mitigate factors such as competition, starvation from leaving host patches, or unrelated to food plant, such as mortality from drought, predators, parasites, or disease.