[Movie File] Ovipositional behavior of Orange Hairstreak (Japonica lutea)

[Movie File] Ovipositional behavior of Orange Hairstreak (Japonica lutea)　
   Orange Hairstreak (Japonica lutea) is one of the most common Zephyrus Hairstreaks in Japan. It ranges from sub-urban area to the mountain. The larva feeds on Oak tree (Quercus spp.) The adult butterfly is active from late afternoon till the sunset. Sometimes we can see numerous adult butterflies are flying the canopy of forest. It looks like the orange shower in the forest.
  
   On a sunny afternoon in this June, I found one female perched on the twig of Quercus tree. She was about to lay eggs, so I got interested in observing and filming her behavior. This species has a peculiar habit of hiding its eggs by small dusts. Soon after laying one egg, this female started to collect small dusts on the twig by using her abdomen. The egg seems to be sticky on its surface and small dusts are glued to the egg. This butterfly continued this work for about 5 minutes.

   Then unexpected thing has happened. A small weevil was approaching to the butterfly. It seemed that the small beetle wanted to go down the twig but the butterfly was on its route. Then the weevil kicked the butterfly by its foreleg! The butterfly dropped from the twig and flew away, abandoning her egg-laying behavior halfway.

   I was very satisfied with filming such an interesting nature drama!!

(Hachiouji-shi, Tokyo, JAPAN, June 2012)

▲The weevil which kicked the mother butterfly

▲The egg was mostly covered with tiny hair-like dusts on the twig