Feeding Plasticity of the Endemic White Mountain Arctic (Oeneis melissa samidea) Butterfly

Presenter

Ester Fonseca

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Ayodele C. O'Uhuru, Department of Environmental Conservation, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A13, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 1 (A1-A20) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The White Mountain arctic (WMA) butterfly (Oeneis melissa samidea) is a subspecies of the Melissa arctic (Oeneis melissa) that is endemic to a small portion of the alpine zone of Presidential Range of the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. This unique butterfly’s larvae are monophagous, only consuming Bigelow’s sedge (Carex bigelowii) in the wild. This preliminary study aimed to provide information on if the WMA larvae will show signs of host plant plasticity to accept alternative food sources should environmental pressures make their host plant less accessible. 

Working with New Hampshire Fish and Game we tested the plasticity of host plant acceptance on a captive colony of 110 WMA larvae. Larvae, kept in petri dishes were offered Bigelow’s sedge and three-forked rush (Juncus trifidus), a common rush species found in the area. We found that 86 of the larvae fed on Bigelow’s sedge and 21 on the three-forked rush. After performing an unpaired two-sample Wilcoxon test using R software to compare the two independent variables. The output provided a p-value of 0.01032, which is less than our determined significance level of 0.05. This allows us to reject the null hypothesis.

In conclusion, this study suggests that the WMA larvae do not show a significant sign of plasticity when it comes to host plant selection and would likely not switch food sources from Bigelow’s sedge to three-forked rush if pressured due to the loss of their host plant.

Keywords

Plant-insect interactions , Arctic, alpine systems , Foraging and diet behavior

Research Area

Environment Effects on Ecosystems

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