OVIPOSITIONAL HOST PLANT PREFERENCE OF SEPIA-OFFICINALIS

The present study was undertaken to verify ancient data in the literature on ovipositional preference of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis for the terrestrial plant Pistacia lentiscus (mastic tree). - Adult specimens of Sepia were placed in basins together with aerial parts not only of P. lentiscus, but also of Artemisia arborescens, Centaurea alba var. deusta, Quercus ilex and Laurus nobilis. The egg masses deposited on the plants quantified on a daily basis during the 16 day observation period. By far the largest amounts of eggs were found attached to the stems and petioles of P. lentiscus (51.8%), but Q. ilex and A. arborescens also scored high as ovipositional host plants (23.1 and 20.2% respectively). L. nobilis and C. alba var. deusta ranked very low (3.6 and 1.3% respectively). Considering the extremely divergent shape of the three preferred oviposition substrates, which excludes affinity for a uniform type of plant, the possibility of chemical attraction cannot be ruled out.