Friends in My Garden- 32

Giant Redeye

Giant redeye butterfly

Its a butterfly; a resident of my garden.

Giant redeye butterflies (Gangara thyrsis) are dark chocolate brown in colour, with yellowish and reddish patches on the forewings. This is not very much visible in resting position.

The larvae look funny at certain stage, with cottony, thread-like outgrowths. If disturbed they may shed these waxy threads. They are voracious eaters of palm fronds and destroy my ornamental palm plants in no time!

Caterpillar pastes together the edges of the palm leaves to make a pupa (chrysalis) and this is a sort of waterproof chamber.

Caterpillar

Pupa (Chrysalis)

After emerging from pupa… just flew on to the next plant

Friends in My Garden- 23

Tailed Palmfly

Tailed palmfly

Tailed palmfly (Elymnias caudata) is a dweller of my garden and is seen in pairs during breeding season.  They appear brown while resting but when they take off, bright orange colour of the upper side of the hind wings is displayed.

As the name suggests, this butterfly prefers palm trees as host plant for the young ones. They are real gluttons and many times destroy the ornamental palm trees in my garden.

There is a tail-like projection on vein 4 of the hind wing that distinguishes these from Common palmfly.

These are pictured in my garden.

The darker one is the male

Caterpillar- on the underside of a palm leaf

Emerging from pupa

Friends in My Garden- 5

Common Mormon

A female Common mormon

Another beautiful butterfly seen around my garden.

Males and females of Common mormons (Papilio polytes) are easily identifiable with presence or absence of red crescents on the hind wings; females possessing more of them. Female Common mormon is polymorphic with variations seen on wing designs.

The larva (caterpillar) undergoes various stages before morphing into the butterfly. Each stage is specified as an Instar. Here I am showing two stages of the caterpillar, the Third and Fifth instars.

Male Common mormon on white Ixora flower

Third instar caterpillar

Fifth instar caterpillar