1987] 
Windsor — Tortoise beetle, Acromis sparsa 
135 
Table 2. The median number of eggs per egg mass producing wasp parasitoids, 
beetle larvae or failing to develop classified by collection site. The Kruskal Wallis 
one-way analysis of variance statistic, “H”, tests for significant between-site differ- 
ences (“*” = p 0.001). 
Site 
Wasps (%) 
Larvae (%) 
Undevel. (%) 
Eggs N 
Field 
14 (35) 
13 (32) 
1 1 (28) 
40 29 
Mixed 
10 (26) 
25 (64) 
2 (5) 
39 42 
Forest 
2 (5) 
30 (75) 
2 (5) 
40 32 
H 
11.7* 
25.3* 
21.2* 
1.99 ns 
“forest” site during the mid wet season 1984. The sample was 
divided into nine matched pairs consisting of an egg mass from 
which the mother was removed and the nearest neighboring egg 
mass from which the mother was removed and immediately 
replaced. Each egg mass was revisited 6 times at intervals of 24 
hours. The unguarded egg mass was missing or destroyed before the 
guarded eggmass in each pair. Five of nine motherless egg masses 
were preyed upon within 24 hours, eight of nine within three days 
and all nine within five days. Myrmecine ants consumed two of the 
unguarded egg masses. Eight of nine “control” egg masses and 
mothers were intact and in perfect condition at the end of the five 
days. One “control” egg mass was sandwiched between two wet 
leaves during a rain and subsequently abandoned by the guarding 
female. This egg mass was also overrun by myrmecine ants. 
Relocating and discriminating between egg masses 
Females were removed from egg masses and dropped so that they 
landed within 1-2 m of a point on the ground directly beneath their 
egg mass. In most cases these females returned to their egg mass 
within 30-60 minutes. When females were moved more than 2 
meters from the egg mass they rarely returned. Females that lost 
their own egg mass as a result of being displaced readily adopted 
and protected the first unguarded eggmass they came upon, even if 
it was not their own. However, when 12 marked mothers from six 
pairs of neighboring egg masses (located on different shoots of the 
same plant) were removed and dropped on the ground midway 
between their egg masses, 1 1 returned to their own egg mass. The 
exceptional mother adopted a nearby untended group of A. sparsa 
larvae, perhaps because her egg mass was being preyed upon by 
ants. Two females from one of the pairs were observed guarding the 
