Hill-topping (more often spelt hilltopping) is a mate-location behaviour seen in many

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

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butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threa ...

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

. Males of many butterfly species may be found flying up to and staying on a hilltop - for days on end if necessary. Females, desirous of mating, fly up the hill. Males dash around the top, competing for the best part of the area - usually the very top; as the male with the best territory at the top of the hill would have the best chance of mating with the occasional female, who knows the "top male" must be strong and thus genetically fit. Many authors consider this as a form of lekking behaviour. Many butterfly species including swallowtails, nymphalids, metal-marks and lycaenids are known to hill-top. In some ''

Acraea Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology. *Acraea, the naiad daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosymn ...

'' butterflies, widespread infection by ''

Wolbachia ''Wolbachia'' is a genus of intracellular bacteria that infects mainly arthropod species, including a high proportion of insects, and also some nematodes. It is one of the most common parasitic microbes, and is possibly the most common reproduct ...

'' results in a rarity of males and in these species the females widely engage in hill-topping behaviour. Female butterflies at hill-topping sites are predominantly of unmated individuals. Studies have shown that even slight elevation differences on flat terrain can trigger hill-topping behaviour. Flowering or tall trees may induce hill-topping behaviour. The concentrating effect of hill-topping on butterfly populations makes such locations of special conservation significance.New, T. R. 1993. Conservation Biology of Lycaenidae (butterflies). The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

References

{{reflist, 2 Insect behavior Butterflies