Comparison of Courtship Behavior in Fourteen Butterfly Species

Courtship behavior was observed for 14 butterfly species, including seven species belonging to tribe Theclini, Lycaenidae, to address whether males of sexually dichromatic species perform more active demonstration of their wing surface to the female than those of monochromatic species do. Males in nearly half of the dichromatic species kept their wings closed on the thorax throughout most of a courtship, indicating no general relationship between the mode of wing coloration and courtship behavior. The results obtained are discussed from ecological and phylogenetic points of view, and it is inferred that the wing-closed courtship has developed in the Theclini group as adaptation to predation pressure in the woodland habitat.