Abstract

Butterflies are depending on the plant juice in the form of nectar for their food material. They have adapted themselves to different modes of ingestion of food. The feeding in butterflies is analogous to inserting a straw into a drink to withdraw fluid. Modifications in the parts around the mouth in butterflies appear to be the most significant feature for their life. Most of the butterflies use to feed on floral nectar.  Butterflies therefore may have a role as efficient pollinators for respective host plants. Development of long proboscis as modified mouth parts in butterflies is to be regarded as an example of a co-evolutionary line in the animal kingdom. The Hesperiidae butterflies of Mayureshwar Wildlife sanctuary shown variations in their length of proboscis. The hesperiidae butterflies with longer proboscis visit plant species having flowers with long or deep-tube. Hesperiidae butterfly proboscis help to take up nectar food from the flowers with long or deep as well as short tube of the corolla.  The hesperiidae butterflies with extremely long proboscis in present attempt were observed to obtain the nectar from their preferred host plants. The Calathea species are well known as nectar host plants for the Hesperiidae butterflies of Mayureshwar Wildlife sanctuary. Species of skipper butterflies (family: Hesperiidae) with long proboscis could potentially utilize the flowers with short as well as long corolla tube. The skipper butterflies (family: Hesperiidae) with extremely long-proboscis, generally did not visit flowers with short nectar spurs.  Both Lantana camera (L) (Family: Verbenaceae) and Stachytarpheta frantzii (L) (Family: Verbenaceae) attract many different flower-visiting insects. The flowers of Lantana camera (L) (Family: Verbenaceae) and Stachytarpheta frantzii (L) (Family: Verbenaceae) are easily accessible. The skipper butterflies (family: Hesperiidae) with long-proboscis are recorded crowding around the host plant flowers with long tubed corolla. 

Keywords

Mayureshwar Wildlife Sanctuarym, Siphoning, Corolla Tube, Proboscis, Mouth parts.

Received on 15/02/2019, Accepted on 16/04/2019, Published on 27/04/2019