1978] Wood — Parental Care in Guayaquila compressa 
137 
Figure 1 . Photograph of female G. compressa on egg mass deposited on plant 
tissue on the underside of leaf (X7). 
Females on eggs are sensitive to disturbances and will fly off egg 
masses. In several cases, touching the branch or leaves caused flight, 
while other females had to be repeatedly poked with a pencil before 
taking flight. Six females were disturbed to the point of flight in 12 
separate trials. Some of these females simply dropped from the egg 
mass, but most flew off, landing on plants 5 to 15 feet away or made 
a circular flight back to the host. In all 12 trials, these 6 females 
found their way back to egg masses. In 5 trials, females returned 
within a 24-hour period, while in the remaining 7 trials they 
returned within 5 to 80 min. Females which could be observed 
often moved to several plants before locating the tree with the egg 
mass. Once on the host, they walked up and down branches until 
finding an egg mass. As they approached egg masses, females 
appeared to make fewer movements away from the egg mass, 
suggesting some ability to orient to cues associated with the egg 
mass (chemical or visual). 
Parent female — offspring interaction — First instars associated 
with 5 parent females averaged 51.8 (range 37 to 60) individuals with 
