The releaser for the feeding behavior, the mechanism of food-finding and the color preferences in flower-visiting in the adult of Nymphalis xanthomelas japonica Stichel were examined under quasi-natural conditions. Feeding behavior of the adult is released by the taste of food and/or the odor emanating from food itself or food-donors (flowers, for instance), but not by the color or the shape of food-donors. In searching for food, the adults stimulated by the odor of food or food-donors, find out food mainly by exercising olfactory sense and only with the supplemental aid of the gustatory chemoreceptor of the tarsus of legs or visible sense. Olfactory chemoreceptors, therefore, have an important function in the feeding behavior of this species. Although the adults hardly visit merely colored objects (scentless artificial flowers, for instance) nor are they prompted to try reaching the proboscis for food by such odorless matters, yet when the adfults come flying to scented and colored objects, colors of the objects also seem to be a clue of finding, and the adults readily find the objects if they are both scented and colored. But the color of food or a food-donor essentially exerts no influence on the feeding behavior. The adults, however, really have the color sense, and at least bluish and yellowish colors are discriminated out of others. In flower-visiting the adults display preferences not only on the odor but also on the color of flowers, and have a manifest liking to several colors: blue, yellow and white. In addition bluish color seems to be far preferred to the yellowish.
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