Talicada nyseus

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Talicada nyseus
Talicada nyseus4.JPG

Talicada nyseus

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Bluebirds (Lycaenidae)
Subfamily : Polyommatinae
Genre : Talicada
Type : Talicada nyseus
Scientific name
Talicada nyseus
( Guerin , 1843)
Wing underside

Talicada nyseus is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the family of Gossamer (Lycaenidae).

features

butterfly

The wingspan of the moths is 30 to 35 millimeters, with females and males being drawn similarly. The basic color of the upper sides of the wings in both sexes is black. What is striking is the extensive yellow-red to orange-yellow region, which extends from the anal angle on the upper side of the rear wing to the middle of the wing and which makes the species unmistakable. The fringes are alternately black and white piebald. The underside of the forewing is colored black with white spots in the submarginal and postdiscal regions, and white with black spots in the disk and basal regions . The underside of the hind wing is orange-red with white spots in the submarginal and post-disk regions and white with black spots in the disk and basal regions. The hind wings show very thin black tails.

egg

The eggs have a whitish color, a hemispherical shape, a slightly dented micropyle and are covered with many small bulges. They are deposited on the underside of Kalanchoe leaves.

Caterpillar

The caterpillars spend their entire development time mining between the epidermal layers of a leaf. They tunnel through the fleshy leaf so that they eat the entire leaf. The entrance to the tunnel is closed with balls of manure. Adult caterpillars are whitish to yellowish in color and have a few black spots and thin white hairs. When fully grown, the caterpillar emerges from its host leaf, weaves a silk overlay and a tight body band, and pupates on the underside or top of a leaf.

Doll

In terms of color and drawing, the pupa resembles a fully grown caterpillar.

  • pairing

  • egg

  • Mining caterpillars

  • Adult caterpillar

  • Doll

Occurrence, subspecies and habitat

Kalanchoe pinnata , a food plant of caterpillars

The range of the species extends from India and Sri Lanka to Burma , Thailand and the south of Vietnam . Seven subspecies are listed in the individual occurrence areas . Talicada nyseus prefers to colonize tropical forest edges up to altitudes of 2000 meters.

Way of life

The moths can be found all year round. They like to visit flowers such as the acanthus family (Acanthaceae) and foxtail family (Amaranthaceae) to ingest nectar. The moths were observed to suckle on lichen and in the process take in phenols . It is assumed that the substances of the phenols have a deterrent effect on predators. Studies to clarify this behavior are ongoing. The caterpillars feed on Kalanchoe species, for example Kalanchoe laciniata and Kalanchoe pinnata .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d India Biodiversity Portal
  2. ↑ Markku Savela: Tanaecia Butler, [1869] - distribution. In: Lepidoptera and some other life forms. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Karunaratne, V., Bombuwela, K., Kathirgamanathar, S., Kumar, V., Karunaratne, DN, Ranawana, KB, Wijesundara, DSA, Weerasooriya, A. and ED De Silva (2002) An association between the butterfly Talicada nyseus and the lichen Leproloma sipmanianum as evidenced from chemical studies. Current Science 83 (6): 741-745 ([http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_083_06_0741_0745_0.pdf PDF )

Web links

Commons : Talicada nyseus  - collection of images, videos and audio files