On Mechanical Puddling

Resource Specialization in Puddling Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera feed at mud puddles, dung, and carrion in a behavior known as puddling. Sodium and sometimes protein are feeding cues, are actively collected, and play a potentially important role in lepidopteran nutritional and mating ecology. We showed that montane butterßy species have feeding preferences among mud, herbivore dung, and carnivore dung, and that these preferences differed among bu...

Marine Puddling in Papilio Polytes (lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

Smedly & Eisner (1995, 1996) stressed the difficulties that terrestrial herbivores, including Lepidoptera, suffer in order to fulfill their need for sodium, an essential ion plentiful in the seas, but in short supply in plants. Adult Lepidoptera drink from puddles, edges of streams, carrion, and excreta from which they obtain sodium and proteins (Beck et al. 1999). Puddling behavior is typicall...

K+ Excretion: The Other Purpose for Puddling Behavior in Japanese Papilio Butterflies

To elucidate the purpose of butterfly puddling, we measured the amounts of Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ that were absorbed or excreted during puddling by male Japanese Papilio butterflies through a urine test. All of the butterflies that sipped water with a Na+ concentration of 13 mM absorbed Na+ and excreted K+, although certain butterflies that sipped solutions with high concentrations of Na+ excr...

On Frictional Mechanical Systems

Effect of pre-planting tillage on crop yields and weed biomass in a rice±wheat system on a sandy loam soil in Punjab

In rice (Oryza sativa L.) culture the effect of puddling (wet tillage) on puddle quality, weed growth and yield of crop depends upon initial soil manipulations by pre-puddling tillage. However, the role of pre-puddling tillage on these aspects has not been studied adequately. These effects were studied for three years (1994±1996) in a ®eld experiment with a rice±wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cro...