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Interrelations Among Habitat Use, Behavior, and Flight-Related Morphology in Two Cooccurring Satyrine Butterflies, Maniola jurtina and Pyronia tithonus

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Abstract

Mobility, activity patterns, habitat use, and some morphological traits of two often cooccurring satyrine butterflies of grasslands—the meadow brown (Maniola jurtina) and the hedge brown (Pyronia tithonus)—were studied by a mark-release-recapture method at two sites. Additionally, someflight-related morphological traits of a series of collected females of P. tithonus were compared between recently colonized and permanent populations. The more active, but less mobile P. tithonus got faster wing damage than did M. jurtina and had more, and more symmetrically spread eyespots onthe wings. For both species, the microdistribution was affected by shelter, long vegetation, and nectar, but this was more pronounced in P. tithonus. It is hypothesized that P. tithonus may traverse the same landscape at a slower rate than M. jurtina.

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Correspondence to Thomas Merckx.

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Merckx, T., Van Dyck, H. Interrelations Among Habitat Use, Behavior, and Flight-Related Morphology in Two Cooccurring Satyrine Butterflies, Maniola jurtina and Pyronia tithonus . Journal of Insect Behavior 15, 541–561 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016385301634

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