Tailed Jay - Graphium agamemnon

Scales of Tailed Jay

Fresh pupa

Tailed Jay -  Graphium agamemnon

• Predominantly green and black butterfly from swallowtail family

• It is a commonly occurring butterfly in India, mostly found nectoring near bushes of Lantena. 

• Another reason, Tailed Jay being common is as it uses false-Asoka tree as its food plant.











Eclosion sequence Tailed Jay





• Tailed Jay is also called green-spotted triangle, tailed green jay, or the green triangle.

Tailed Jay roosting 

• Jay is active from morning to late afternoon. It settles down in the evening, often hides sitting underside of the leaf of a bush in the dark.

• During nectoring Jay flutters quite fast and hardly opens the wing completely. It is difficult to get photograph of open winged tailed jay in the field. Chances of finding one are better in the morning when it opens the wing and sit for sun-bathing. However, it chooses top of a bush, thus makes it difficult to get good open-wing shot.

Similar looking species and occurring around Mumbai:

Common Jay

Common Blue bottle

Spot Swordtail

Lemon Emigrant - Catopsilia pomona

Lemon Emigrant - Catopsilia pomona

Another common butterfly in South Asia - called as Lemon or common emigrant. This species is known for the migration in flocks, community puddling and the activity. Grown individual is a fast flier and very much active during season. It prefers nectoring on flower such as Indian screw tree, Lantana and cosmos flower. I have seen this butterfly flying very high above the ground, specially towards the top of trees such as acacia spp. for nectoring, egg laying.

Early stages:

Female lay plenty of eggs but not in a group. Rice-grain-shaped eggs are laid on the leaves of common trees like golden shower tree. Caterpillar feeds on leaves and can grow up to ~5 cm in length. Pupa is like a typical pierid butterfly pupa, connected to leaf by two threads with another end attached directly to leaf.

Adults:

Adult has characteristic lemon color and has wingspan of about 55 mm. Male is plan and female has some black markings on upper side of wings. Catilla form is uncommon and has dark brown patches on under wings. 

 Egg of Common Emigrant

Front and side view of Comm. Emigrant caterpillar

Backlit pupa of Common Emigrant

Eclosion sequence of common emigrant

Common Gull - Cepora nerissa

 

Common Gull - Cepora nerissa

A very common, small to medium sized Pieridae family butterfly that is seen flying all over India and in most part of Indian subcontinent. It is very identical with another species called "Pioneer".

 

Early stages:

Pinkish Egg just before birth of caterpillar

Egg is like tall building, something similar Petronas twin towers, and with a shape resembling a rice grain.Female lays single light-yellow colored egg at a time, normally on the thorns of the plant. Preferred host plant by female of common gull is capparaceae spp. Egg turns to pinkish in about 6-8 days. Caterpillar feeds on leave to grow up to 4 cm before pupation.

Pupa of common gull

  

Full grown:

Wingspan of the butterfly is about 45 mm. Female has darker and broader black spots on the upper wing. As per my observation male seems to be more active and is on the wings more as compare to female. Grown individual occur in two forms - wet season and dry season. It is often seen nectoring on small flowers. It rests on small twigs for some time, which is usually the good time to photograph the under-wing pattern. Upper wing pattern can be photographed in early morning when it is basking.

Eclosion of common gull.
Complete eclosion sequence can be found here (Face book album).

Freshly emerged specimen of Common gull

Court-shipping pair

Mating pair

Giant Redeye - Gangara thyrsis

Giant Redeye - Gangara thyrsis

Gangara thyrsis thyrsis Fabricius, 1775 – Oriental Giant Redeye

Collage of Giant red eye (freshly emerged)

The first record in Mumbai Region:

Egg of Giant redeye on coconut leaf

One fine morning, around 7 AM, I was roaming in medical gardens at IIT Bombay looking if I could get some good photographs of flowers and basking butterflies. Ambiance was cool and cheering, sun-light slowly rising. However, butterfly activity was low and hardly I could find any butterfly fluttering. Unable to click a decent photo is pathetic and frustrating situation for a photographer. Long wait starts breaking the patience and mind starts planning to return to home. To my experience, at this precise stage photographer discovers something un-usual.  The find hold photographer, cheer him up and boosts the moral. Another hour or two is added to the trek till next breaking point arises. This morning was not different from such many experience I had. I decided to have a last look around and return to home. There it was, appeared suddenly on flower some 6 feet away from me. Something bigger than skipper and was surely not a moth. After allowing hardly two snaps, the object flew away so fast that I couldn't track it. Thankfully, I succeeded in shooting a reasonable good record-photograph. To my surprise, snap was the first photographic evidence of recent time   of Giant Redeye (GRE) in Mumbai region. 

Importance of record shot:

I have developed a habit of always shooting a record-snap before shooting good snap, to avoid any kind of embarrassment. Record-snap should be enough for identification of the object. Immediately on returning home, I referred few books and websites, specie I recorded surely was GRE. Still, I could not believe what I found because of two reasons: No body has ever reported GRE from Mumbai in recent time and I was amateur. Some experts need to confirm it and for that I decided to publish it on Facebook. Issac Kihimkar, immediately identified and confirmed GRE and went further to congratulate me for first photographic record. Interestingly, after me reporting the image, many butterfly-enthusiast found and photographed GRE all-over Mumbai. Next year, plenty  of caterpillars were discovered and life-cycle record was completed.

Habits of GRE:

Caterpillar and pupa of GRE

GRE, is one of the large skippers and no doubt a swift flier. It has large abdomen and wing span about 75 mm. This specie is active just after dawn and before dusk. Individual is so sensitive to light that after eclosion carried in controlled environment, responds to the switching of artificial light source. Long proboscis enables it to nectar on the common flowers with long pollen tubes. When not is use, proboscis is wound in circular fashion and is  an appealing object to shoot. 

Early stages:

GRE lays characteristic vase shaped eggs on coconut palm trees. Caterpillar with red colored body marks, has cotton thread like  a loose shaggy filamentous clothing which is actually pure wax excreted. Caterpillar wounds the flaps of coconut leave and creates a shell. If cat is present in the shell, it responds tapping on the shell by shaking its body. Caterpillar grows up-to 2 inches and then forms pupa inside the shell. Redeye appears in the pupa stage and further becomes a feature. 

Eclosion of a butterfly

Eclosion sequence of the Tailed Jay

Eclosion of a butterfly

Eclosion is first activity of butterfly relates pupa and adult butterfly, two stages of butterfly life cycle. It is emergence of butterfly out of the pupa and very important stage in the life of a butterfly. This is a fast and mind-blowing event to watch. Eclosion can take place any time in the day, from early morning to late night. 

Common Jay - Graphium doson

Common Jay - Graphium doson

Common Jay, is a tailless swallowtail common to the gardens. It is found all over the India in abundance. A butterfly frequently seen visiting flowers and lantena for nectoring. Flight is quick and powerful. This species may be easily confused with bluebottle species in flight. Common Jay lay egg on the tender leaves and at a height from 1 to 2 meters from the ground. The Polyalthia longifolia (Ashok) and Magnolia champaca ( Sonchafa). Egg is pale yellow in color and perfect round in shape. Initially instar is pale brown which turns dark brown and final instar is pale green in color. Caterpillar forms pale green color pupa on upper side of leaves. Sexes are alike. In general behavior of this species closely resembles that of Tailed Jay.

Quick Facts:
Status: Common
Latin Name: Graphium doson
Wingspan: 70-80 mm
Host plants:  Polyalthia longifolia and Magnolia champaca

Malabar Tree-Nymph (Idea malabarica)

Malabar Tree-Nymph (Idea malabarica)

Luck favors who take chances - I took chance when Deepak said we can get Malabar tree nymph (MTN) caterpillar for sure at one place. Answer to this question was another question. Why dont you asked me before? The destination was another five kilometers inside the jungles, ahead of Ashtagaal (cotigao, goa). Thankfully a car was available and going there was not a problem. MTN is one of the largest butterfly species of India, with wingspan upto 160 cm. Could be easily identified with black spots on off-whit grey colored body, gliding flight and habit to hover over a particular spot. Species is endemic to the western ghat and is locally common. 

Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)

A very easy for ID butterfly. As name suggests, wings are 'tawny' colored with black spots on it. Another characteristics is lazy flight, bit of like sailing - fluttering combination. Lot many specimens can be seen around its host plant passiflora sp. Host plant is a climber, flowers throughout the year. Tawny coster lays eggs in large batches, typically between 20 to 100. Caterpillar is tawny-reddish color, and has spines allover the body. Appearance is similar to pansy caterpillars. I brought one batch for observation consisted of 50+ eggs. Here are some observations:

Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 2)

Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 2)

White Orange tip Male on Kalanchoe

Food collection: Most of the time, a butterfly is imagined nectoring a flower. This is obvious as most of butterflies do the same. Flower is widespread food source for them. More importantly it is available in the same season when butterfly breeds : pre and post monsoon season. Common flowers like Lantena, siam weeds, amaranth, snakeweed, turnsole are favorites for them. 

Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 1)

Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 1)

This Sanskrit quote says "As a man determines, so he becomes". But for a caterpillar I think there is no choice but to become a butterfly of a certain specie. Their life cycle has remained unchanged for thousands of generations. Serving and adding beauty to the nature silently - for generations. Here I am consolidating some important stages/activities of a butterfly life. 

Mating: Primary natural task of any living species is reproduction to sustain. Butterflies are not different and one adult finds other suitable adult to mate. My observation says, the mating period is afternoon and late afternoon in a day. Sure shot chance of mating can be caught where the population of a particular species is higher. This place could be near to food plant. There are incidences reported when individuals from two different species seen mating.

Mating pair of Gram Blue

Lime Blue (Chilades laius)

Fresh Lime Blue 

Lime Blue female egg laying on Lime

Lime Blue (Chilades laius) belongs to Lycaenidae family. It is small butterfly, grayish in color. We were able to observe its life-cycle. As its name suggest its larval host plants includes Lime plants. We observed its larva on small lime tree in Medical garden. Larva was easy to detect even though it is well camouflaged. Ants constantly follow larva, so in order to find Lime Blue's larva just follow the trail of ants. On the same plant we were able to find many empty pupa. This plant had many curled leaves. Lime blue caterpillar took advantage of this to make the pupa. Pupa were well concealed inside curled leaves of plant. It seemed that ants were attaining pupa also. We saw two pupa made very near to each other on same curled leaf. Lime Blue is seemed to be common in immediate post mansoon months. Again they were mainly encountered around Hill side. 

Lime Blue pupa in secluded leaf of lime, held on palm 

Key to ID this butterfly is the "L"shaped dots on its hind wings. Sex are dissimilar, female has black outlines on UP, which are absent in male. Here is a video Describing association of ants with lime blue caterpillar on lime tree.

Quick Facts:
Common Name: Lime Blue
Scientific Name: Chilades laius
Wingspan: approx 25-20 mm
Status: Locally Common.

Lime Blue

Female	Male
Early stage Pupa	Early Stage Pupa
Pupa just before eclosion	Pupa Just before eclosion
A different specimen