Do caterpillars of Dryas iulia alcionea (Lepidoptera,Nymphalidae) show evidence of adaptive behaviour to avoid predation by ants?

Plants bearing extrafloral nectaries can attract wasps, bugs, and mainly ants. Ants can defend plants against herbivores by treating the plant as an extension of their own territory. We evaluated the efficiency of resting sites built by Dryas iulia alcionea larvae as protection against ant predation on their host plant Passiflora suberosa. The results showed that ants on P. suberosa have significant influence on the survival of D. iulia caterpillars. The use and construction of resting sites was recorded through the fourth larval stadium. A strong inverse relationship between the number of resting sites constructed per larva and the developmental stage of the larvae was observed. Additional results suggest that the efficacy of resting sites against cursorial predators decreases with larval development. The behaviour of constructing resting sites probably evolved by natural selection. It is likely that this behaviour was important for the ancestral lineage that gave origin to Heliconiinae genera Dryas, Dryadula and Phylaethria.