Eclosion of lime butterfly

This is the final part of my 4 parts on Lime butterfly. You can read about my previous post here : Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3.

Once the pupa turn to this colour, is the sign that the eclosion is near and will happen within the next24 hours.

The video below show the eclosion process.

A newly eclosed butterfly waiting to start the new generation,

Love and Hate of the Beautiful Pest - Lime Butterfly pupation (Pt 3)

 This is the continuation of my previous post on Lime butterfly. You may read them at : Part 1 and Part 2

After pupation, Lime butterflies' pupa can take the form of green or brown colour.

Pupa in the form of brown

and pupa in the form of green colour.

Pupation captured in video.

Love and Hate of the Beautiful Pest - Lime Butterfly (Pt 2)

After the 5th instar , the caterpillar will prepare themselves to become a pre-pupatory larva.

The caterpillar will first apply their silk to make a silk pad in order to secure themselves at their cremaster (the tail section).

They are further support by silk girdle over their thorax and stay dormant.

After about a day, the caterpillar will go through the pupation.

A pair of cephalic horns can be seen at this stage after removing their green caterpillar moult.

The moult that left behind after the pupation.

The pupation will continue and the dorsal thoracic hump can be seen and bend down.

The pupa can be in either green or brown form.

After about 8-9 days of development, the pupa will turn black with yellow stripes. This is actually the butterfly appearance under the almost transparent case. When this happened, the beautiful will eclose the next day.

A beautiful newly eclosed butterfly will first hang themselves to fully  extend their wing and for them to dry up before they take their first flight. Well, this is a rather project to start especially during this pandemic period when you have more time at home.  
 

Love and Hate of the Beautiful Pest - Lime Butterfly (Pt 1)

Like many things in life, a love and hate of something is mostly about perspective and really depend on individual choice. Same goes to Lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus). Is a beauty for those who see it as a beautiful elegant butterfly and yet a pest to those who plant lime tree as ornamental plants or as crops.

I enjoy taking butterfly photos and always ask my family member not to remove any caterpillars that they been complaining biting away the beautiful lime tree. But most of the time, the caterpillars are pick up by birds before they able to turn to butterfly. So, I try a new approach that able to continue to let the population of butterfly grow without being predated before the caterpillars turn to butterfly. To do so, I will keep and feed the caterpillars indoor in a tank and release them when they turn to butterfly.

Is easier to pick them after they hatch from the egg. You may search the underside of the young leaves of the newly laid egg after sighting of butterfly around your lime tree. The egg is about only 1mm in diameter. Butterfly are very picky about their host plant, so you will only have Lime butterfly visit your lime tree and not other butterflies.

After 2 to 3 days, the egg will turn to brown colour and the caterpillar is ready to eat their way out of the egg shell. 

This newly hatched caterpillar have a rather spiky look with yellowing brown colour.

From now, the caterpillar will go through 5 instars before turning to pupa and butterfly. They will go through moulting each time before entering next instar. 

During 2nd instar, is still with the spiky appearance and looks like a bird droppings from top.

The caterpillar will have less spiky appearance during 3rd instar. 

During 4th instar, the caterpillar still looks like a bird drooping but is now less spiky and more silky.

During 5th instar, the smooth appearance totally different from the last 4 instars. The size now reaching  42mm is about 14X from their 1st instar. 

After about 4 days in the 5th instar, the caterpillar will prepare themselves to become a pre-pupatory larva.

The caterpillar will secure themselves with silk pad at their cremaster (the tail section) and further support by silk girdle over their thorax and stay dormant. To be continued...

Caterpillars on Lotus Leaves

Butterflies/moth select only certain type of plant as their hostplant and it is different from species to species.

I didn't realise that even lotus leaves is also hostplant for butterfly or moth!

I believe this is the larvae of  Spodoptera litura. moth.

 Closer look of the caterpillar.

They feed on the lotus leaf and very destructive consider a pest in many country.

Peacock Royal

I was taking photo of sunbird at Singapore Botanic Garden and was attracted by this beautiful butterfly with a very bright blue colour.

 It was indeed a Peacock Royal butterfly (Tajuria cippus maxentius) that usually feed on Ixora flowers.

 This butterfly may have a very bright upper side but their under side are greyish in colour.

They have dark dotted line on the side of their wings.

Butterfly Puddling

Saw thousands of butterfly along the trail when I was at Kaeng Krachan Nature Park of Thailand last month.

Is believed that male butterflies are more likely the one that do puddling. When butterfly sips water from the ground, they also take in traces of minerals that dissolved in the water.

Butterfly Galore at Pasir Ris Park

Further to my earlier post on the mass feeding/pollination by butterflies & other insects, here are more butterflies taken on last Sunday. I'm not too familiar with butterfly, do let me know if I got the id wrong.

This butterfly looks like a Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide australis)

Striped Black Crow (Euploea eyndhovii gardineri)

Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides agleoides)

Peacock Pansy

Painted Jezebel

Lemon Emigrant

And also lots of other insects...

Flowering Tree Attracts Mass Feeding

Chance upon this flowering tree at a neighbourhood park that attracted more than 20 different species of insects! Butterfly, bees, beetle,...

Small Butterfly

These butterflies were taken at MacRitchie Reservoir Park on Saturday afternoon while having a guided walk by SY.
This is a Malay Tailed Judy and are found mainly in the shadier parts of the forest. It is considered rare on the NSS Butterfly of Singapore guide sheet.
Very similiar to Bush Brown but without the two reddish brown stripes cross two wings. This could be a Purple Bush Brown. (Thanks for the feedback)This probably one of the smallest butterfly - Lesser Grass BlueA Common PalmflyA very beautiful butterfly - Branded Imperial. Unlike other butterfly, both adult & carterpillar actually feed on the same Smilax bracteata as their food plant.Common Posy, less abundant compare to Branded Imperial.