%0 Journal Article
%T Observations of Resource Use by the Threatened Diana Fritillary Butterfly (Speyeria diana) in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA
%A Carrie N. Wells
%A Eric A. Smith
%J Journal of Insects
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/130694
%X We present four summers (2006¨C2009) of field observations of the Diana fritillary, Speyeria diana (Cramer, 1777), throughout the Southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, in the eastern portion of its distribution. We describe our observations of resource use by S. diana in sites located in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Butterflies imbibed nectar from five genera (>11 species) of flowering plants and also imbibed liquid from dirt roads and horse manure. The majority of butterflies (57%) were observed feeding on milkweed, Asclepias spp., a high-quality nectar-producing plant which is known to be an important resource for many Lepidoptera. We documented 14 species of Viola spp., the larval host plant used by Speyeria, in our survey sites. All butterflies were marked to observe their movement. Recapture rates ranged from 17% to 56%, suggesting that dispersal of S. diana out of suitable habitat was somewhat limited. 1. Introduction The Diana fritillary, Speyeria diana (Cramer, 1777), is an endemic butterfly species in the southeastern USA that has experienced a severe range collapse over the past century [1]. Speyeria diana was once distributed more widely across the southeastern US than it is at the present, ranging from coastal Virginia across the Ohio River Valley to Arkansas and Missouri. This species now persists in two geographically separated population groupings across the Interior Highlands of Arkansas and Oklahoma in the west, and throughout the Southern Appalachian Mountains in the east [1]. Due to its rapid decline over the past century, S. diana is considered to be a species of federal concern in North Carolina by the Fish and Wildlife Service and is included on the North Carolina Animal Watch List published by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program [2]. Speyeria diana is also included on the Red List of Pollinator Insects of North America, compiled by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation [3] and is listed by NatureServe as a G3 species (rare across its distribution) [4]. Despite regional listings, there is no federal protection in place for this species under the US Endangered Species Act(16 U.S.C. 1531-1544, 87 Stat. 884). A number of studies have established the importance of violets, from the genus Viola, to Speyeria larvae [5¨C7]. While a number of violet species have been used to successfully rear S. diana in laboratory settings [8¨C11], to our knowledge there are no documented reports of Viola usage by S. diana from natural habitats. Evidence does suggest that S. diana may specialize in its
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/insects/2013/130694/