Samoan swallowtail, life history, egg diameter, 2013-2014

Surveys for Papilio godeffroyi specimens were conducted on 117 individually marked host trees (Micromelum minutum) in eight forest stands on Tutuila Island, American Samoa, at approximately monthly intervals during 2013-2014. The eight stands were mostly in or adjacent to the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA), but one stand was sampled near the western tip of Tutuila, outside NPSA. Eggs and eggshells were collected during each survey and processed in the laboratory at American Samoa Community College. The diameters of intact eggs or mostly intact eggshells were measured to address questions about how propagule size, a potentially important indicator of fitness, might be related to hatching success,developmental and survival rates of developmental stages, sex, parasitism rates, seasonal variation, and individual host tree and host tree stand characteristics. Measurements of Papilio egg diameters allow for comparisons with other island and continental species of Papilio. Egg size can be used with other reproductive data available in this data release and with host plant and habitat data (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9A6CXQX), to evaluate variation in reproductive parameters relative to seasonality and physical differences between individual host trees and host tree stands.This dataset includes measurement of egg diameter from Papilio godeffroyi eggs collected during surveys.

[
  "010:12"
]

[
  "geospatial"
]