Life History Traits of Talicada nyseus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Butterfly Under Laboratory Conditions

The butterfly Talicada nyseus G. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) is abundant in India and Sri Lanka (Karunaratne, et al., 2002). In India, this butterfly is chiefly found in the peninsular area, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and foothills of the Himalayas (Singh, 2005). The host plants of this butterfly include Kalanchoe spp. (Saxifragales: Crassulaceae). Adult Talicada nyseus feed on nectar of surrounding flowering plants but are also reported to feed on lichens (Karunaratne, et al., 2002). Recently it has been discovered that Talicada nyseus is infected with maternally inherited Wolbachia bacteria (Ankola, et al., 2011; Salunke, et al., 2012) and exhibits a female biased sex ratio (Ankola, et al., 2011). It is suspected that the presence of the female biased sex ratio in this butterfly is caused by its endosybiont Wolbachia. As an endosymbiont, Wolbachia is known to cause female biased sex ratio in butterfly hosts by inducing two distinct reproductive anomalies: feminization of genetic males (Hiroki et al., 2004) and male killing (Jigginset al., 2001; Charlat et al., 2005). It is essential to record scientific data regarding the life history traits of Talicada nyseus naturally infected with Wolbachia. In the present report life history traits of Talicada nyseus which harbor Wolbachia infection were studied under controlled conditions. The individual Talicada nyseus specimens used for the study were collected from a laboratory reared population which was previously confirmed to be heavily infected with Wolbachia. Five individual mated pairs were used separately for the present study. The life cycle was analyzed at 28.09 ± 0.564° C. The data collected were statistically analyzed by paired t-test with the help of SPSS 7.5. Wolbachia infection in this butterfly was previously documented by Ankola etal. (2011). The fecundity of Talicada nyseus was found to be ranging from 61.6± 12.08 to 66.4 ± 17.75 (Table 1). The fecundity data obtained from the present study is in agreement with our previous report (Ankola et al., 2011). More than 95% hatchability was recorded during the present investigation indicating that there might not be male-killing induced by Wolbachia in Talicada nyseus (Jiggins et al., 2000; Charlat et al., 2007). The hatching time required for eggs ranged from 7.4 ± 1.83 to 9.6 ± 2.71 (Table 1). Furthermore, the time required for th