Experiments on wavelength specific behavior ofPieris brassicae L. During drumming and egg-laying

Summary

Female cabbage white butterflies, under constant laboratory conditions exhibit wavelength specific behavior in choosing sites for egg-laying and drumming.

In preliminary spontaneous choice experiments with colored PVC-sheets (Table 1, results) butterflies gave somewhat different preference order than with monochromatic lights of different wavelength but equal relative quantum flux (Table 2A, B). These differences probably depended on the relative number of quanta and the spectral composition of the light reflected by the sheets.

White light is ignored by the butterflies during both drumming and egg-laying, up to intensities 60 times that of the monochromatic light stimulus.

The functional categories “egg-laying” and “drumming” are both associated with the spectral region from 497 nm to ca. 585 nm (Fig. 10). The functional category “feeding reaction” is associated with regions adjoining that for “egg-laying and drumming” on both the shorter-wavelength side (<497nm) and the longer-wavelength side (>578nm).

Wavelength specific behavior and the significance of odor substances in the chain of stimuli that lead up to egg-laying are discussed.