Mesmerizing butterflies 🤩

Great…but can we have a close up of these caterpillars and also which plant is this ,etc

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This is plumeria pudica white

A close up photo i managed to take is this

https://stemgames.metastudio.org/uploads/default/original/2X/7/705200a5aa3869c4fdb8a5af84112e46580992f4.mp4 but for this photo i found it fallen on other plant and it reached its plant (plumria pudica white)again

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Those look pretty hairy. I’d say moth caterpillars


It looks similar to the Tea tussock moth caterpillar, but then again, only a closer view could confirm the same :confused:

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Wow this looks beautiful but how can we identify it when it is very. Small​:thinking::thinking:

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A couple of things to observe and a few curious questions
The caterpillars are all on the same leaf and feeding gregariously. Is this normal for caterpillars? Do they feed in groups?
They seem to be eating only a layer of the leaf which contains the chlorophyll. Is this part more nutritious? Is the other part not nutritious?
When the caterpillars grow up will they eat the entire leaf?
Why are we trying to identify the caterpillar? Is there really a need? Should we focus on what it is or what it does?

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Hi all,
This is Harshad. This is Harshad. I have worked on butterflies for a while and would like to interact more about them through this portal.

When one thinks of butterflies, we largely imagine bright coloured butterflies (adults). But there is more to them. In fact, each aspect of the insect life cycle (egg, larvae, pupae, adult) is fascinating and there lie several interesting questions out there. I would be here-forth involved in some discussions on this group. If any of you have any striking comments/ thoughts on insect life history patterns we should discuss them here.

Could we get some pictures of butterfly/ moth larvae/ pupae? I am attaching a picture from a butterfly species I used as a model system for my PhD work. It is Mycalesis mineus,
[Welcome to the Butterflies of India website! | Butterfly]. The pupae of this species are green and brown in colour.

This raises some basic questions. Why do some larvae develop into green pupae and some into brown pupae? Is there a genetic basis for pupal colour? Does the environment (like background colour) influence pupal colour? Why do pupae have colour variation in the first place? Would like to know your views/comments/suggestions/ questions regarding this.
Green%20and%20brown%20pupa

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Does pupal colour vary in every butterflye or only a few ?if it changes in all is brown and green are the regular colours?

From the available literature the green/ brown dimorphism pattern seems predominant (Please see Table 1 in this paper review of factors inducing plasticity. Certainly, other colour patterns exist too, among them are orange pupae of the swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus pupal colour variation in diapausing pupae. There could exist other colour forms too, yet to be reported.

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What is chemical composition of this colour ?
Does color formation has any genetic basis?
What is mechanism involved behind it?

I do not know about the chemical composition of pupal colour. Whether brown pupae are brown due to melanin pigment is also not known. However, the larval colour pattern is known to be of chemical nature.

Pupal colour dimorphism has a genetic basis. It is said that pupal colour is a threshold trait. Once the stimulus exceeds a certain threshold alternate coloured pupae are produced. Thus pupal colour plasticity is a threshold trait due to genetic variation and environmental factors also influence it.

The ultimate production of coloured pupae is known to be regulated by hormones.

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Does butterflies coming from both pupae looks similar ?
eggs of the butterfly that came from brown pupae gives only brown pupae or both brown and green?

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I have not checked any morphological features in particular, say eye-spot size, wing morphology. However, adults eclosing from both green and brown pupae do look similar. You have raised an interesting and intuitive question @Sumasasi. Certainly, a study can be done to investigate whether adults eclosing from green and brown pupae differ in life-history traits, like mating strategies, number of eggs laid etc.

Again, for your second question, I have not tried mating adults eclosing from brown pupae with each other or adults eclosing from green pupae with each other. It would interesting to know if adults eclosing from green pupae give rise to a higher proportion of green pupae and adults eclosing from brown pupae have a higher probability of forming brown pupae.

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Yesterday morning at 7.30 am i found many types of butterflies and also a Catterpiller can any body help me name them

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Catterpiller is


Is this acatterpiller of butterfly or. Moth

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The first photo is a butterfly from the Pierid family. I cannot identify this.

The second photo is of Catopsilia species.

The third photo is Common Leopard, Phalantha phalantha Welcome to the Butterflies of India website! | Butterfly

The fourth photo is male of Great egg-fly, Hypolimnas bolina Welcome to the Butterflies of India website! | Butterfly

The fifth photo is the Mottled emigrant Catopsilia pyranthe, it is likey to be the species in the second photo. (Welcome to the Butterflies of India website! | Butterfly).

The sixth photo is one of the species of what we commonly call grass yellow butterflies. There are several species of them. One needs a closer look at the wing patterns. Please check for these species under the genus Eurema.

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Millipede, has two pairs of legs per segment.

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Suma, a number of us can tell you what the creature is in that last image. But I’d like to propose a project for you. Look closely and count the number of legs.
How many legs does it have.
How many legs does a caterpillar have.
Does it have antennae, does a caterpillar.
Watch it for some time, does it move like a caterpillar, what does it eat?
Answer these questions and instead of giving us an image, give us a story.

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sure with in a few days i will submit the story