Dryadula phaetusa

Dryadula phaetusa(Dryadula phaetusa)

Phylumarthropoda
Class —insecta
Order — lepidoptera
Family —nymphalidae

Genus –dryadula

Appearance

The caterpillars are dull purple or orange, with many branching black spines. They`ve got a head with two black horns.

The dorsal wing surface of the male Dryadula phaetusais bright orange with thick black horizontal stripes. Females are similar, but lighter and with fuzzier stripes. The ventral wing surface contains alternating reddish brown, cream, and orange stripes. Their wingspan measures 8–9 cm.

Habitat

Dryadula phaetusabutterflies occur mainly from Brazil north through Central America. Rarely, they can be found in Texas and Kansas.

Behavior

It demonstrates daily activity. Shortly before dusk, the butterflies settle under the leaves of the bushes, where they spend the night. Before the mating season begins, males of this species gather in hundreds in areas of moist soil containing mineral salts. If they cannot find such areas, the insects visit various animals to drink salty secretions from their skin. Females fly to the bird droppings, consuming nitrogen from them. The caterpillars feed in groups.

Diet

It feeds primarily on the nectar of flowers and on bird droppings; its caterpillar feeds on passion vines including Passiflora tetrastylis.

Reproduction

For their reproduction you need a terrarium with a size of 50 x 50 x 70 cm. Females lay eggs one at a time on the stems and leaves of the forage plant. The eggs are yellow, approximately 1.7 x 1.1 mm in size.Incubation lasts 4-5 days.

It is better to keep the caterpillars in terrariums of 6-8 pieces.In the terrarium, you need to put a pot with a forage plant.The temperature is 22-25oC. The humidity is 60-70%. The pupal stage lasts 7-8 days. The pupae are beige or brown, slightly S-shaped. On the head of the pupa are two wide black horns.

In captivity

The mesh terrarium with a size of 50 × 50 × 70 mm is suitable for keeping butterflies. Room temperature is necessary. Daylight time is 12 hours. You can feed butterflieswith honey syrup diluted with boiled water in a ratio of 1:10.

 

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