Danaid Eggfly

August 22, 2023

Hypolimnas misippus (Linnaeus, 1764) — Danaid Eggfly

Male

Malayalam Name	:	ചൊട്ടശലഭം
Order	:	Lepidoptera
Super Family	:	Papilionoidae (Butterflies)
Family	:	Nympalidae
Sub Family		Danainae

DISTRIBUTION : Asia, Africa, Central & North America, Australia

STATUS: Common

HABITAT : Moist deciduous forests and urban landscape

HABITS:

The females mimic Plain tiger or Monarch butterfly.

IDENTIFICATION FEATURES:

Males are blackish with distinctive white spots that are fringed in blue.The male has the upperwings dark velvety brownish black. The forewing has a broad white oval spot between veins 3 and 7. A smaller spot near the apex is also present. These spots are crossed by the black veins and bordered in iridescent blue that is visible only at certain angles. The hindwing has a larger white spot but the veins crossing it are yellowish and not as prominent as on the forewing. There are some white specks along the tornus and the margin is edged with white and black.^[5]
Underside forewing: bases of interspaces 1 and 2 and cell rich light chestnut, discal area fuscous brown; apical half golden brown; basal half of costal margin flecked with white: cell anteriorly black with three white spots; a narrow, transverse, very short, white mark beyond apex of cell; a very broad, somewhat oval, white discal patch from costa to middle of interspace 2 edged with diffuse dusky black; the preapical white spot as on the upperside but not surrounded with blue, continued posteriorly as a transverse series of small postdiscal white spots; an inner and an outer transverse series of white lunules divided by a sinuous black line followed by a terminal black line.^[5]
Hindwing: basal and postdiscal areas chestnut-red; a black spot at base of vein 8 defined by white lines; a very broad medio-discal white band from costa to dorsum, crossed at apex of interspace 1 a by a transverse black mark, beyond the middle of interspace 7 by a broad black bar, and in interspace 7 bordered inwardly by black; a postdiscal series of small white spots in continuation of those on the forewing; an inner subterminal series of paired subtriangular small white spots, an outer subterminal line of slender white lunules, an intervening black sinuous line between the two series and a black terminal line. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings white alternated with black. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown; beneath, the palpi and thorax white, the abdomen chestnut

Females are in multiple forms that include male-like forms while others closely resemble the toxic butterflies Danaus chrysippus and Danaus plexippus.

SIMILAR SPECIES : Female mimics Plain Tiger. Male similar to Greate eggfly but small and underside different

LARVAL HOST PLANTSLIFE CYCLE

Asclepias curassavica, Calotropis spp., C. gigantea, C. procera, Caralluma adscendens, Cryptolepis dubi, Pergularia daemia (Apocynaceae).

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