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The malachite has large wings that are black and brilliant green or yellow-green on the upper-side and light brown and olive green on the underside. It is named for the mineral malachite, which is similar in color to the bright green on the butterfly’s wings. Adults feed on flower nectar, rotting fruit, dead animals, and bat dung. Females lay eggs on the new leaves of plants in the Acanthaceae family, especially ruellia. The larvae are horned, spiny, black caterpillars with red markings. Malachites often are confused with Philaethria dido. They have similar coloration, but their wing shapes are different. Named … Read more

Not only do they love the flowers, but it seems the flowers make them fall in love. Well, no, not love. But they sure do start mating a lot on and around the plants. It must bloom at some peak of their multigenerational northward migration. Like they did in September of last year, they mated, and mated some more, and the resulting caterpillars ate our milkweed plants down to their stems. I feel like I’ve seen more death in my yard this year than in other years, but that’s because there’s so much more life in my yard than in … Read more

The peacock pansy butterfly (Junionia almana) sports striking eyespots and purple patterns. This species is widely distributed throughout South East Asia. This species inhabits a wide variety of habitats including secondary rainforest, monsoon forest, plantations, rural areas and gardens. It is active in bright sunshine and prefers open areas, where it flies close to the ground. This species is rather common across multiple habitats, with ubiquitous presence in open areas in the nature reserves as well as urban and suburban areas. Peacock Pansy Butterflies are frequently found basking in sunny patches of the NEERI campus in the early part of … Read more

Blue Pansy Butterfly (Junonia orithya) This time I would like to show you some recent pics of a pansy butterfly (Junonia orithya), the day I found, it was busy flying here and there over the wild plants. Luckily, I used DSLR, so I could be able to take these photos from a distance range. This species is relatively common in Indonesia, even sometimes we can find this typical butterfly in the bush, pretty much around the flower garden. Any butterfly, including this kind, tend to visit tiny flowers growing in grassy areas, and sunbathe with wings fully open. The flight … Read more

　　Life History of the Striped Blue Crow (Euploea mulciber mulciber) 　　Butterfly Biodata: 　　Genus: Euploea Fabricius, 1807 　　Species: mulciber Cramer, 1777 　　Subspecies: mulciber Cramer, 1777 　　Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 80-90mm 　　Caterpillar Local Host Plants: Calotropis gigantea (Asclepiadaceae, common name: Giant Milkweed), Gymnanthera oblonga (Apocynaceae, common name: Sea Rubber Vine), Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae, common name: Oleander), and various members of the Ficus genus including Ficus microcarpa (Moraceae, common name: Chinese Banyan), F. grossularioides (common name: White-leafed Fig) and F. lamponga. 　　Physical Description of Adult Butterfly: 　　Above, the male is bright blue in the forewing with diffuse white spots in the distal half; … Read more

The 2nd instar caterpillar is yellowish green in body color with similar droplet-bearing setae as in the 1st instar. In addition, there are numerous small, black, conical tubercles dotting the body surface. Each of tubercles has a short setae emerging from it. The head is pale yellowish green in color. This instar lasts about 1.5 days with the body length reaching about 6.2mm. The 3rd instar caterpillar resembles the 2nd instar caterpillar closely except for the appearance of a whitish sub-spiracular band. The body surface has numerous tiny setae, and in some specimens, the base of these setae are darker … Read more