Mistletoes and butterflies Mistletoes as food plants for
Butterflies The use of mistletoes as food plants by butterflies
has generated a whole field of research which spans several
continents. In Africa, for example, caterpillars of the genus
Mylothris feed almost exclusively on plants of the order
Santalales, and within the Santalales 65-80% of feeding records
are on species of Loranthaceae. In Indonesia-Australia the
situation is similar, with caterpillars of the genera Delias and
Ogyris feeding on Santalales, and in Delias 77% of feeding
records are on loranths. Other examples include the Catasticta
group of genera, feeding on mistletoes in the neotropics, and
the Hesperocharis group in South America. It has been suggested
that this predilection in butterflies for mistletoes as food
plants is a derived state with multiple origins. It is thought
that the original food plants may have been the host trees, and
that perhaps through defoliation of the host, or egg-laying near
mistletoe plants, there was a shift