Interpopulation Variation in Adaptation of Eurema hecabe (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) to Host Plant

The temperate (Tokyo) and subtropical (Ishigaki) populations of Eurema hecabe utilize different food plants in their respective habitats. Their larval feeding, growth and survival, and female oviposition responses to food plants (Fabaceae) were examined. Each population showed a much lower survival rate on the host plants available only for the other population than on its native hosts, except the subtropical population on Albizzia julibrissin. The low qualities of the unused food plants were also indicated by larval feeding and growth, and adult oviposition responses, although the different measures of food quality were not always correlated with one another. These two populations are thus differentiated in the ability to use different host plants.