literally hundreds ofAnartia over the course of five days, not a single egg was found on the host

plants.

 After the experiment was complete, the researcher began to compare the north central

Florida test versus the Costa Rica test in order to reason why there was such a drastic difference

in oviposition levels. There was indeed one glaring difference between the trials. In both north

central Florida and Costa Rica, orange marking flags were used to delineate transects and mark

the experimental host plants. It could have been possible that Monarch females saw the orange

marking flag and were attracted to it as being a possible mate, subsequently ovipositing on the

plant, or returning at a later time to oviposit. At this point, shiny blue plastic material was used

to mimic butterfly presence in the same way the orange flags were presumed to do. After the

blue plastic was tied to the host plants, the 10-day experiment was repeated (Figure 4-7). Again,

there was no oviposition. Although the orange marking flags could have served as an attractant

in the north central Florida trials, there is no proof.

 This brings us to the question of why Monarch butterflies were the only species that

oviposited during the north central Florida trials? Although Swallowtails and Buckeyes were

seen regularly in and around the farms, there was virtually no oviposition (there were two eggs

seen of the Swallowtail during the entire experiment). There are two main factors believed to be

the cause for this lack of oviposition. The first is a relative lack of visual conspicuousness.

Courtney (1982) suggested that the level of visual conspicuousness (i.e., how obvious a plant is

compared to its surroundings) directly affects oviposition in butterflies. Specifically, as visual

conspicuousness increases, so does oviposition. Based on the size, color, and leaf shape of the

two host plants used for the Swallowtail and Buckeye (parsley and plantain, respectively), they

likely exhibited a relatively low level of visual conspicuousness in relation to their surroundings.