Mud-puddling

Parthenos sylvia mud-puddling at the edge of a forest stream

Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but also occurring in other animals, primarily insects. The organism seeks out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud, and carrion, and sucks up the fluid. Where the conditions are suitable, conspicuous insects such as butterflies commonly form aggregations on wet soil, dung, or carrion.[1] From the fluids they obtain salts and amino acids that play various roles in their physiology, ethology, and ecology.[2][3] This behaviour also has been seen in some other insects like the leafhoppers, e.g. the potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae.[4]

Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are diverse in their strategies to gather liquid nutrients. Typically, mud-puddling behaviour takes place on wet soil. But even sweat on human skin may be attractive to butterflies such as species of Halpe.[5][6] More unusual sources include blood and tears. Again, similar behaviour is not limited to the Lepidoptera; for example, the various species of bees commonly called sweat bees are attracted to various kinds of sweat and tears, including that of humans, and other bee species have been recorded as doing so to various degrees.[7][8]

In many species, puddling behaviour is more commonly seen in males. For example, Speyeria mormonia males puddle with a much higher frequency than females.[9] The presence of an assembly of butterflies on the ground acts on Battus philenor, for example, as a stimulus to join the presumptive mud-puddling flock.[1]

  1. ^ a b Sculley, C.E. & Boggs, C.L. (1996): Mating systems and sexual division of foraging effort affect puddling behaviour by butterflies. Ecological Entomology 21(2): 193-197. PDF fulltext Archived 2012-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Boggs, CL & LA Jackson (1991) Mud puddling by butterflies is not a simple matter Ecological Entomology 16(1):123-127 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.1991.tb00199.x PDF fulltext Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Beck, J.; Mühlenberg, E. & Fiedler, K. (1999): Mud-puddling behavior in tropical butterflies: In search of proteins or minerals? Oecologia 119(1): 140–148. doi:10.1007/s004420050770 (HTML abstract) PDF fulltext Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Adler, P.H. (1982): Nocturnal occurrences of leafhoppers (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) at soil. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 55(1): 73–74. HTML abstract Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Collenette, C.L. (1934): On the sexes of some South American moths attracted to light, human perspiration and damp sand. Entomologist 102: 769-791.-- Volume 67 pp.81-87
  6. ^ Hamer, K.C.; Hill, J.K.; Benedick, S.; Mustaffa, N.; Chey, V.K. & Maryati, M. (2006): Diversity and ecology of carrion- and fruit-feeding butterflies in Bornean rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22(1): 25–33. doi:10.1017/S0266467405002750 (HTML abstract)
  7. ^ Charles Leonard Hogue (1993). Latin American Insects and Entomology. University of California Press. pp. 457–. ISBN 978-0-520-07849-9.
  8. ^ Brian Morris (2004). Insects and Human Life. Berg. pp. 280–. ISBN 978-1-84520-075-6.
  9. ^ Sculley, Colleen E., and Carol L. Boggs. "Mating systems and sexual division of foraging effort affect puddling behaviour by butterflies." Ecological Entomology 21.2 (1996): 193-197.