240 
Psyche 
[June-September 
yellow wing-bands are less attractive to males than those with white 
bands. The white band color reflects ultraviolet light more strongly 
(25% reflection) than does the yellow (14%) 4 ; whether this compo¬ 
nent is important behaviorally remains to be determined. Males of 
A. amathea mate far less frequently with living females whose red 
color has been obliterated (R. E. S. and A. A., in prep.), than with 
red control females. Since A. amathea and A. fatima, like some 
other butterflies but unlike most other insects, see red (Bernard, 
1979), it is not surprising that this color may be an important social 
signal. It has also been suggested that the black spots of A. jatro- 
phae may be important as a visual signal (Atsatt, 1968). 
Female mating behavior has been studied in A. amathea and A. 
fatima (R. E. S. and A. A., in prep.). Virgin females, isolated in 
flight cages from males, frequently approached other famales in 
what may be “solicitation” behavior, but of course this rarely would 
happen in nature. 
The outcome of most courtships of non-teneral females is proba¬ 
bly determined primarily by female acceptance/rejection behavior 
(Taylor, 1972; R. E. S. and A. A., in prep.). Females of A. amathea 
mate assortatively, preferring conspecific males, but females of A. 
fatima do not discriminate between their own males and those of A. 
amathea. In A. amathea, females do not discriminate between con- 
specific males that had the red color obliterated, and normally- 
colored control males. The asymmetry of assortative mating, that 
results from these differences in female behavior of A. amathea and 
A. fatima, has evolutionary and ecological consequences at the junc¬ 
ture of the two species’ ranges in eastern Panama. 
Copulation generally lasts from thirty minutes to one hour, but 
may be prolonged to as much as twelve hours. Young and Stein 
(1976) suggest that female A. fatima mate but once, Ehrlich and 
Ehrlich (1978) report a mean of 0.92 spermatophores per female in 
A. amathea (N=12, with no more than one per female) and 
Andersen (196?) reported a small number of female A. fatima with 
two spermatophores. Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1978) also suggest that 
Anartia might be a species capable of absorbing spermatophores: 
4 Reflectance was measured densitometrically (Silberglied, 1976); on extreme yellow 
and white individuals. Emmel’s (1972) description is misleading because, among 
other things, the television camera he used adjusts contrast automatically. Reflec¬ 
tance comparisons made with such a camera setup (Eisner, et al., 1969) are 
qualitative at best. 
