Overview

Moths of the family Arctiidae, with their brilliant coloration, spectacular courtship rituals, and bizarre defenses, are wonders of the natural world. Unpalatable by virtue of secondary chemicals acquired from their hostplants, these moths advertise their defenses by their coloration and often mimic butterflies, wasps, bees, stinkbugs, and even cockroaches. They have ears with which they hear the echolocation of bats, and some answer with aposematic warnings, while some may jam the bats' sonar. This book, the first written on this fascinating group, documents how tiger moths and woolly bears-the adults and larvae of the Arctiidae-flourish in a world rife with predators, parasites, and competitors. The contributing authors' accounts, each written by a recognized expert in the field, weave together seminal studies on phylogeny and behavior, natural history, chemical communication, mate choice and sexual selection, chemical ecology, parasite-host relationships, self medication, animal orientation, predator-prey interactions, mimicry, adaptive coloration, speciation, biodiversity, and more.

Full Product Details

Author:   William E. Conner (Professor of Biology, Wake Forest University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.687kg
ISBN:  

9780195327373

ISBN 10:   0195327373
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   13 November 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Out of stock  

Table of Contents

Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments List of Contributions 1: William E. Conner: Uthetheisa ornatrix, the Ornate Arctiid 2: Susan J. Weller, Michelle DaCosta, Rebecca Simmons, Katarina Dittmar, and Michael Whiting: Evolution and Taxonomic Confusion in Arctiidae 3: David l. Wagner: The Immature Stages: Structure, Function, Behavior, and Ecology 4: Thomas Hartmann: Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids: The Successful Adoption of a Plant Chemical Defense 5: M. Deane Bowers: Chemical Defense in Woolly Bears: Sequestration and Efficacy against Predators and Parasitoids 6: Michael S. Singer and Elizabeth Bernays: Specialized Generalists: Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology of Polyphagous Woolly Bear Caterpillars 7: Rebecca Simmons: Adaptive Coloration and Mimicry 8: Ring T. Cardé and Jocelyn G. Millar: The Scent of a Female: Sex Pheromones of Female Tiger Moths 9: Stefan Schulz: Alkaloid Derived Male Courtship Pheromones 10: William E. Conner and Alex T. Jordan: From Armaments to Ornaments: The Relationship between Chemical Defense and Sex in Tiger Moths 11: William E. Conner and Raeleen Wilson: Caterpillar Talk 12: William E. Conner, Nickolay I. Hristov and, Jesse R. Barber: Sound Strategies: Acoustic Aposematism, Startle, and Sonar Jamming 13: Mark V. Sanderford: Acoustic Courtship in the Arctiidae 14: Lazaro Roque-Albelo, Sarah E. Garrett, and William E. Conner: Darwin's Moth: Utetheisa in the Galápagos Islands 15: Gunnar Brehm: Patterns of Arctiid Diversity 16: Raymond B. Nagle and David L. Wagner: Sample Species Illustrating Diversity within the Arctiidae Glossary Bibliography

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Author Information

William E. Conner has studied animal behavior and insect biology for more than thirty years. Conner is professor of biology at Wake Forest University, and received his PhD at Cornell. His studies of pheromonal and acoustic communication between the sexes and high-frequency sound communication between bats and moths have taken him from North Carolina, South Florida, and Arizona to mainland Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. Recent findings include evidence for acoustic warning signals produced by moths and acoustic mimicry in the bat-moth arms race.

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