Notes on the Agave Feeders of the Genus Megathymus (Lepidopter Rhopalocera, Megathymidae)

Authors

H. A. Freeman, Southern Methodist University

Publication Date

1-1-1951

Abstract

Life histories of most of the species of Megathymus long have been associated with the genus Yucca; but John A. Comstock & Charles M. Dammers found that Megathymus stephensi Skinner has as its food plant a certain species of the genus Agave (Bull. So. Calif. Acad. Sci., XXXIII, 1934). Later, it was found that another species of Megathymus feeds in the larval stage upon agave. Although I have been unable to find any published note on the feeding of Megathymus mariae B.&B. upon Agave lecheguilla Torrey, lepidopterists have known this fact for a considerable time. There remain four species of Megathymus with unknown life histories. With this in mind I went, on a research grant, to Arizona this past summer, hoping to work out the life histories of the remaining agave feeders in this group of butterflies.

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Recommended Citation

Freeman, H. A. (1951) "Notes on the Agave Feeders of the Genus Megathymus (Lepidopter Rhopalocera, Megathymidae)," Field and Laboratory: Vol. 19 : No. 1.
Available at: https://scholar.smu.edu/fieldandlab/vol19/iss1/3