i8 
Psyche 
[March-June 
troidine butterflies. Straatman (1971) found that Ornithoptera alex- 
andrae lays eggs singly, and Cook et al. (1971) comment that single 
oviposition also occurs in Parides neophilus and P. anchises on Trini- 
dad. But Young (1971a) found tight cluster oviposition in the held 
to prevail in Battus poly damns in Costa Rica. The oviposition in P. 
areas mylotes is very variable since eggs may be laid singly or as 
loose clusters of varying numbers of eggs per cluster. But oviposi- 
tion in the wild is never tightly clustered as seen in Battus polydamus 
(Young, 1971a). The P. areas mylotes pattern is basically single, 
but with a behavioral tendency to lay several eggs close together on 
a single leaf. This behavior results in first and second instar re- 
maining together in small groups and dispersing later, which is very 
different from the more well-defined gregarious behavior exhibited 
by the larvae of Battus polydamus (Young, 1971a). Larvae in 
the latter case are generally gregarious through all instars and 
presumably fitness is increased as noted in other studies (Ghent, 
i960). A similar oviposition pattern to that found in P. areas 
mylotes also occurs in P. childrenae and P. sadyattes (Young, 
in prep.). Thus the oviposition pattern of Parides in Costa Rica 
(and perhaps for all of the Central American mainland) is a 
variable one being basically single but typified by loose clusters of 
a variable number of eggs, usually ranging between two and five 
on a leaf. It is clearly not entirely single, nor is it the tight-cluster- 
ing pattern seen in Battus. As might be predicted, the larvae are 
semi-gregarious in P. areas mylotes (Fig. 2-E, F) as well as in P. 
childrenae and P. sadyattes (Young, in prep.) and perhaps in most 
Parides , while truly gregarious in Battus. These preliminary find- 
ings in different species suggest that there may exist distinct phylo- 
genetic patterns of type of oviposition and extent of larval gregari- 
ousness at the generic level in the Troidini, and perhaps within other 
tribes of Papilioninae. Superimposed upon evolutionary history will 
be the prevailing ecological conditions (Birch and Ehrlich, 1967) 
such as food plant specialization, patchiness of food plant populations, 
predation pressure on immatures, adult population cohesiveness, and 
several others, which mold the oviposition strategy in either direction 
(single versus clustering) and the likelihood of larval gregarious 
behavior. 
Summary 
In this paper concerning the life cycle and natural history of 
Parides areas mylotes (Bates) on the Caribbean side of the central 
Cordillera in Costa Rica, the following points were emphasized: 
