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Boloria napaea (Hoffmannsegg, 1804) is a species with arctic ‐alpine disjunction, which has its main area of distribution in the Arctic. In the more southern mountains, it only occurs in the Alps, while a possible occurrence in a restricted region in the eastern Pyrenees remains controversial. Beside special adaptations to the occurring extreme conditions i n these ecosystems, the species also represents an example for sexual dimorphism in alpine butterflies. However, the studied population in the Hohe Tauern National Park (Salzburg, Austria) showed no differences in the movement distances between the sexes but three different types of movement. While males showed a high flight activity in a limited part of the area (home range) or rare long dispersal movements, females were less flight active and flew only to find places for oviposition and feeding. This higher flight activity in males may lead to the observed foraging differences between sexes, where male individuals preferred the genera Leontodon and Crepis and females the genera Leontodon and Carduus as nectar sources. We think that sex‐specific requirements in nectar ingredients exist; males need more sugar for their intensive flight activity and females have a greater need for amino ‐acids for their egg production (see pages 1089–1101). Photo by Stefan Ehl.
Source: Insect Science - Category: Biology Tags: CONTENTS Source Type: research