Euchrysops cnejus (Gram Blue)

Euchrysops cnejus (Gram Blue) newly emerged.

Euchrysops cnejus (Gram Blue) is a small butterfly belonging to lycaenidae family. It is very common in post-mansoon months in our campus. It can often be seen basking along road sides in the morning showing off its beautiful blue colour (in case of male); on upperside of its wings. Two tornal black spots with orange caps are present. It is tailed butterfly.

This butterfly and Forget-me-not butterfly are very much similar and can be confused for one another. Absence of spot in     will imply that it is Forget-me-not (see the comparison photo).

It has been seen laying eggs on Vignata sp. flowers and flower buds. Vignata sp. is a climber and it is common in our campus. It can be readily recognised in post-mansoon months by presence of flowers. Flowers are violet-purple in colour and it has peculiar shape.  Gram Blue caterpillar feeds on inner part of flower buds and inner parts of flowers. In order to feed it bores a hole through flower.  So if you examine the flowers/flower buds with hole you may get to see caterpillar. One should be careful in identifying caterpillar because some other species such as Pea Blue, Common cerulean , Dark cerulean caterpillars look almost same at first glance and moreover they also has Vignata sp. as a common larval host plant. We have seen Dark cerulean activity near Vignata sp.. It should be noted that ants were present on Vignata sp. on which we found Gram Blue caterpillar. But its pupation seems to be unaffected by absence of ants (this was a case as caterpillar was reared in home).  Before pupation caterpillar was constantly moving to find secluded space. Then we put some dried leaves insided the box, where caterpillar was kept. It finally made pupa inside one of the curled, dried leaf.

Key difference between Gram Blue and Forget-me-not.

Open wing

Pre-pupation	Pupa

Before emergence	Emergence

Commander - Life Cycle

Please double-click on the picture for better quality. 

Common Baron (Euthalia aconthea)

Common baron is a common medium sized graceful butterfly. Brown in color, female and male differs slightly on upper wings. Female has prominent white spots on upper-side. Species can be confused with chocolate pansy.  Female is seen quite often basking on the big leaf. Having large abdomen, powers it a powerful flight. To find a baron male is a rare treat to the eyes. Male can be found near wet patches, puddling during noon time. Egg is laid singly, preferred LHP is cashew-nut. Egg is domed shape, green in color and has spines all over it. Caterpillar rests on upper side of the leaf, aligned with the mid-rib. Its spiny and looks like thin lines of the leaf. Even being on the upper side of the leaf, camouflage protects it. When grown enough, it forms a pupa below the leaf. Its attached to the leaf with "cremaster". Pupa is often parasitized  by chalcid wasps [1]. 

Front and side view of common baron egg on cashew-nut leaf

Quick Facts:
Name: Common Baron
Scientific Name: Euthalia aconthea
Wingspan : 50 to 60 mm
Host plant: Mango, cashew-nut

Baron cat on cashew=nut leaf

Pupa

Female basking

Cashew-nut tree, with fruit and flowers

Mango tree, Mangifera Indica

Indian Sunbeam (Curetis thetis)

Indian Sunbeam female, recently ecloded

Fresh egg of Indian sunbeam on Derris scandens

         Indian sunbeam, share a "not common" status with some other butterflies on the campus. Mostly spotted on the lake side, due to unprecedented availability of its LHP, an evergreen climber named Jewel Vine (Derris scandens). Thanks Mr. Haneesh for identification. Sunbeam caterpillars were also found on the Pongamia pinnata (करंज), a pea family tree better known for bio-diesel extraction source. Teh tree also hosts for several other butterflies e.g. Common Banded Awl. Many eggs and caterpillars were observed at same time on both these plants . Caterpillar normally resides at the edge of the branch and prefers to eat fresh leaves. Due to its excellent camouflage technique it look like a part of leaf, it can remain unnoticed. Two horn-like structure on its rare part of the body is a special and noticeable feature.

            Indian sunbeam male and female have distinct UP. Male is bright orange and female with most of the part dull dark brown (Chocolate) colored with small white marking on upper-wing. According to Krushnmegh kunte's "Butterflies of Peninsular India", Males are much more frequently seen. However our observation inside the campus is other way round. Females were spotted often, specially near the host plants. Once female was spotted on bamboo tree sap. Just once Male was seen mud-puddling. Male and female both were shot on that same day behind the H-5/H-9 hostels besides the compound wall. Otherwise, one very few occasions male is seen that too in the flight.  Indian sunbeam is frequently found when we toured SGNP, yeoor, Nagla nad Tungareshwar WLS. There are two other subspecies, angled and toothed sunbeam, both spotted by us in Tungareshwar WLS. These two posses subtle deviation from Indian sunbeam and none of them are spotted in the campus. 

Quick Facts:

Name: Indian Sunbeam

Scientific Name: Curtis thetis

Wingspan: 40-50 mm

ID marks: Different UP . Male has orange and female Dark-brown UP wings.

Host plant: Pongamia pinnata, Derris scandens

Curetis thetis egg laying on Derris scandens

Indian Sunbeam Male

Female UP

Note the horn like body-part

Caterpillar, another view

Fresh pupa

Markings are developed on 4th day

Just before eclosion

Indian Sunbeam female on bamboo tree sap

Red Pierrot - Lifecycle

Fresh specimen of Red Pierrot

One of the common butterfly on the campus for entire year. A tiny and unmistakable butterfly with very weak flight. Its with black and white body except for the lower portion on hind wings are red. Its very common around its host plant - Bryophyllum calycinum, a useful medicinal plant. In the medical garden behind hostel-3, plenty of Bryophyllum is planted.Plant grows few feets and remains green thorugh out the year. Butterfly is mostly seen nectoring on the small flowers and favorite one is Amaranth ( मख़मल).  

Caterpillar inside leaf, black sphere like is excreta

Mating pair, sexes are alike 

The female lays egg underside of the leaf and one at a time. After hatching, caterpillar bores into the leaf. As leaves of the bryophyllum are thick enough to host it, caterpillar can remain inside the leaf till pupation.  When eatable part of the leaf is finished, caterpillar shift to some other. Caterpillar of these species is easiest find, although hidden inside the leaf. When it bores in between the two epidermal layers of leaf, it fills it with its excreta. Searching for the black pouches filled with excreta may lead tot the caterpillar. Caterpillar is flat as it leaves inside the leaf. Its light yellow in color with white hairs on the body.Caterpillar comes out of the leaf at tht time of pupation. Normally pupa is approx 10 mm long and is formed on or under the leaf. Key characteristic is the numerous black dots  all over the pupa. In field, UN wing photograph of red pierrot while nectoring can easily be shot. Getting UP wing shot, with full open wings is very difficult. It is observed that this species open their wings completely in the afternoon, which is the right time to get UP shot. 

Quick Facts:

Botanical Name: Talicada nyseus

Wing span: 30-35 mm

Key ID: Black and white body with orange fill on tail side.

Habits: Weak flyer, common around host plant.

 

Egg laying Red Pierrot

Red Pierrot nectoring on Amaranthus

Stages in Red Pierrot Life Cycle

Bryophillum buds

Bryophillum plant, LHP of red 

Pierrot

Butterfly Egg

Top and side view of a Common baron egg laid on Cashew leaf

Zebra blue laying egg on Plumbago.

     Life cycle of a butterfly starts with an egg. Probably most wonderful activity by a tiny creature apart from nectoring. Chain of actions before egg laying adds excitation and sometimes surprise to the nature lover.It all starts with hunt for the right larval host plant. Female hovers over a region to find the appropriate one. Now one has to be ready with the camera and track the lady. Female settles, sits on the prospective surface with curved abdomen, it is the start for the egg laying activity. For cameraman to shoot egg laying activity, getting into right position sometimes a not-easy-to-do job. Furthermore the activity lasts for few seconds in many cases when a single egg is laid. However if multiple eggs are laid then its relatively simple to take best photos. Watching egg laying female is best start to  successful life cycle documentation.

Fresh Egg of common crow, sticky liquid is seen at the base

         Eggs are too tiny, sometimes even for 1:1 macro lens, to take good photos. Best setup would be - a tripod mounted camera with true macro lens and creative lighting system. Sharp and close-up image reveals the features of the egg properly. The ornamentation with ridges, pits, polygonal cells can be seen in best of the image. A thin layer of sticky substance can also be seen. This layer keeps the eggs attached to the surface where it is laid, surface may be a leaf or bud or flower. Normally it takes about 2-4 days to hatch an egg and hatching time depends on the species.





       Few observations of egg/s, may lead to conclude about the butterfly species and to determine whether the egg was laid by butterfly or some other insect. Here are some points which can be considered while observing eggs:

Top view of dome shaped egg of Giant Red Eye

1. The larval host plant: Every butterfly prefers one out of bunch of preferred plants to lay eggs. This information and verification in the checklist reduces the list of possible candidates to few.  For example, If a butterfly egg is found on coconut tree, most likely it would be of common palmfly. Some species need association of ant for caterpillar growth. In such cases, female prefers the plant only if ants are present. On very few occasions, egg is laid in the vicinity of the larval host plant. In this case, caterpillar searches for right plant and starts feeding. A rare case is female making a mistake in identifying the larval host plane. Such "oviposition" mistakes are uncommon but have been  reported. Me and Abhay were involved in one such case by common wanderer female. She laid eggs on Ziziphus, which is not a LHP of the species involved. We searched for its usual LHP, Capparis, in the vicinity. We found none. 

2. The shape of an egg: It differs from family to family. 

     a) White and yellows: Eggs like bottle shaped or grain of rice.

     b) Swallowtails : Round shape like ball.

     c) Blues: Semi-spherical or dome shaped with spines

     d) Skippers: dome shaped without any markings

     e) Brush-footed butterflies: Half-open flower 

3. Number of eggs: Number of eggs laid in a batch depends on the butterfly species. Some lay single egg while some lays many eggs in batches. Number of eggs in batch may vary from a small batch of 2-3 eggs to a big hundred. Egg laying in small batches for few days may happen in case of some species. Common wanderer is observed to lay around 7 eggs in two batches. Small salmon Arab, Tawney Castor may lay around hundred eggs.

4. Location on surface where egg is laid: Leaf of larval host plant is most preferred place to do so. Sometimes its laid under the leaf, over the leaf, on offshoot. Some species choose flowers to lay egg on. 

Different types of butterfly eggs

Spherical egg of Common Nawab	Seven eggs of Common Wanderer, laid in two batches
Egg of Common Sailor on tip of leaf	Most likely egg of Dark evening brown

Forget-me-not (Catochrysops strabo) egg laying on sprouts of Paracalyx scariosus  (Marathi: रान घेवडा )

Dark grass blue laying egg on flower

 

References: 

1. Butterflies of peninsular India by Dr. Krushnmegh Kunte, 1st Editiion, 2000, University Press Pvt. Ltd.