Egg Plastron of the Bog Copper Butterfly Tharsalea (Epidemia) epixanthe (Bsd. & Le C. [1835]) (Lycaenidae: Lycaeninae)

Authors

David M. Wright, Lansdale, Pennsylvania, United States

Date of this Version

10-4-2021

Document Type

Article

Citation

Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey (October 4, 2021) 9(6): 1-6

Also available at https://lepsurvey.carolinanature.com/ttr/ttr-9-6.pdf

Also available at the Internet Archive and the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Comments

Copyright 2021, International Lepidoptera Survey. Open access material

License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-SA-NC 4.0 International)

Abstract

The egg of the Bog Copper butterfly, Tharsalea (Epidemia) epixanthe, has a prominent highly-sculptured chorionic surface. Trapped within the chorion is a labyrinth of air spaces which has been proposed as a plastron for gas exchange while the egg is submerged in water. Data derived from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms the plastron should function as predicted. Furthermore, the insulating air spaces should prevent water loss of the diapausing first instar larvae while overwintering.