365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Parnassius Clodius, Mated Female
Day 281: All right, class, settle down. Today, we will be venturing into the somewhat embarrassing subject of how to tell girls from boys, i.e., "the birds and the bees" as it relates to the peculiar anatomy of the Clodius Parnassian butterfly (Parnassius clodius). Our specimen here is not perched on a nodding flower. The hollow, keel-like white structure you see beneath the black body is called the "sphragis," and originates as a gelatinous secretion deposited by the male during mating. This secretion hardens into a plug which prevents sperm from escaping the female's body, giving much better odds for reproductive success. Parnassians are one of the few families of butterfly which exhibit this unusual anatomical characteristic.
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