Sabotaging behaviour of Neotropical danaines on intact and manipulated leaves of Calotropis procera (Aiton) W.T. Aiton (Apocynaceae)

Factors that mediate insect herbivore sabotaging behaviour of host plant latex defences remain under debate. The most prominent hypothesis suggests that the anatomy of the host plant’s laticifers determines trenching or vein-cutting behaviour, but there are inconsistencies in the literature. In addition to latex, other plant defences have been shown to affect plant natural enemies, but experimental studies comparing the effects of multiple defences on herbivore performance and behaviour are scarce. In this dataset, we presented data about the sabotaging behaviour of larvae of southern monarch, Danaus erippus (Cramer), and queen butterfly, Danaus gilippus (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) on Calotropis procera (Aiton) W.T. Aiton (Apocynaceae), an exotic milkweed of southeastern Brazil. We also reviewed the sabotaging behaviour of larvae reared on the native milkweed Asclepias curassavica L. (Apocynaceae) from previous studies. As we found no correspondence between sabotaging behaviour of southern monarchs and queens and the anatomy of the host plants’ laticifers, we tested whether structural defences of C. procera leaves (latex, waxes and trichomes) affected sabotaging behaviour and larval performance of southern monarch larvae. Overall, our results show that several factors in addition to the anatomy of laticifers affect sabotaging behaviour of southern monarchs and queens, including larval ontogeny, danaine species and latex outflow.