COMMON TIGER BUTTERFLY – ढाण्याकडवा

हळदी कुं कू मालिका - 3/3 (Haldi Kunku Series-3/3)  

It belongs to the "crows and tigers", that is, the Danainae group of the brush- footed butterflies family. The butterfly is also called striped tiger in India to differentiate it from the equally common plain tiger, Danaus chrysippus.

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION:

Scientific name: Danaus genutia, 

Kingdom: Animalia, 

Family: Nymphalidae,

Order: Lepidoptera, 

Genus: Danaus

 

DESCRIPTION

The butterfly closely resembles the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of the Americas. The wingspan is 70 to 95 millimeters (2.8 to 3.7 in). Both sexes of the butterfly have tawny wings with veins marked with broad black bands. The male has a pouch on the hind wing.

IDENTIFICATION 

The margins of the wings are black with two rows of white spots. The underside of the wings resembles the upper side but is paler in coloration. The male common tiger has a prominent black-and-white spot on the underside of the hind wing. In drier regions the tawny part of the hind wing pales and approaches white in color making it very similar to the white tiger (D. melanippus).

DISTRIBUTION 

D. genutia is distributed throughout India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and extending to South-East Asia and Australia (except New Guinea). At least in the South Asian part of its range it is fairly common, locally very common.

ECOLOGY

This butterfly occurs in scrub jungles, fallow land adjacent to habitation, dry and moist deciduous forests, preferring areas of moderate to heavy rainfall. Also occurs in degraded hill slopes and ridges, both, bare or denuded, and, those covered with secondary growth. While it is a strong flier, it never flies rapidly or high. It has stronger and faster strokes than the plain tiger. The butterfly ranges forth in search of its host and nectar plants. It visits gardens where it nectars on the flowers of Adelocaryum, Cosmos, Celosia, Lantana, Zinnia, and similar flowers.

MIMICS DEFENCE 

The Members of this genus are leathery, tough to kill and fake death. Since they are unpleasant to smell and taste, they are soon released by the predators, recover and fly off soon thereafter.

LIFE CYCLE 

This butterfly lays its egg singly under the leaves of any of its host plants of family Asclepiadaceae. The caterpillar is black and marked with bluish-white and yellow spots and lines. It has three pairs of tentacles on its body. It first eats the eggshell and then proceeds to eat leaves and vegetative parts of the plant. The chrysalis (pupa) is green and marked with golden-yellow spots. The caterpillar of the common tiger butterfly obtains a  supply of poison by eating poisonous plants, which make the caterpillar and butterfly a distasteful morsel for predators. The most common food plants of the common tiger in peninsular India are small herbs, twiners and creepers from the family Asclepiadaceae.

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