Tailed Palmfly

Around 1:30 AM after a really late night call at my hospital I was returning back home for a well deserved sleep, I saw this butterfly sitting on a dry vine near corridor of my house. I could make out that it was a butterfly from the way it was sitting with wings folded. Dim light of corridor did not help me to identify it. Once I saw the butterfly all my tiredness vanished and I wanted to photograph it. I slowly tiptoed into the house to grab and assemble all my macro rig without waking my family.

Tailed Palmfly Closeup

Once I got my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM fitted with ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter on a Canon Speedlite 580EX II, I headed back to the butterfly. I use a led headlight to illuminate the butterfly so that I can focus in such a dark night. For macro photography I prefer manual focus over auto. Using the led headlight I can fine tune focus setting. For macro focusing I use a simple trick. I rotate the focus ring of the lens to a nearest focus position and then move my whole camera towards the subject till it is in perfect focus. If I overshoot, I back off till I get subject in full focus and then squeeze the shutter release. This allows my left hand to be free. I use my left hand to stabilize the branch where the subject is sitting so that I get a steady shot in case of a breeze. That night there was no breeze and the butterfly was sitting without moving hoping that it gets unnoticed in that darkness.

Tailed Palmfly

It was a Tailed Palmfly(Elymnias caudata). In the past this butterfly was considered as caudata subspecies of Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra caudata). Now Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra) and Tailed Palmfly(Elymnias caudata) are considered separate species. It is the most common and widely distributed Palmfly and the only one found in South India. Common in jungles and palm plantations. Avoids bright sunlight and rarely comes out into the open. Occurs in the plains and up to 1700 m in the hills. Active through out the year in South India. With weak flight,settles for a long time on leaves or trunks of palm trees at some height from the ground.

Tailed Palmfly

It lays its eggs on palm trees belonging to Arecaceae family like Coconut (Cocos nucifera), Areca Nut (Areca catechu), Rattan Palm (Calamus rotang), Loureiro’s Date Palm (Phoenix lourerii) Oilpalm (Elaeis guineensis), Yellow or Golden Cane Palm (Dypsis lutescens) and Chinese fan palm(Livistona chinensis).

This butterfly species is dimorphic, males and females do not look alike. Males exhibit black colored upperside forewings with small blue patches and reddish brown color on upperside hindwings, while the females mimic butterfly species of the genus Danaus. Sine I could not visualize the upperside of this specimen I am not sure whether it is male or female.

Mating Common Mormons

Monsoon rain was lashing heavily that day. That morning when there was a brief respite from the rain, I went home to grab a quick cup of coffee, I saw these Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) mating on the citrus plant. Leaving the coffee aside I grabbed my camera and rushed to get these photos. The place where these butterflies were mating was a tricky one. It was on a precarious ledge so I had very little space to maneuver myself. They were hanging from a bush which had only one clear opening, rest of the surrounding was covered by leaves. Light was pretty abysmal. As I had sold my 5D Mark II that time I had only one camera. I fitted my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV with Canon EF 100 f/2.8L IS USM. For the light I used ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter on Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash.

The female Common Mormon was hanging from the citrus leaf and male was attached to the female. Weight of the both these butterflies was carried by female. Even though I was not expecting them to fly off in that position I did not want to disturb their coitus. Using the only window of opening I had, I tried to take photograph before the rain resumed.

Mating Common Mormons

At the first sight both butterflies look so dissimilar. That is because the female Common Mormon is mimicking the Crimson Rose (Atrophaneura hector) butterfly. Common Mormons are not toxic but by mimicking the toxic butterfly they escape being eaten by birds which mistake them for Crimson Rose.

Henry Walter Bates, determined that these multi-morph females are mimicking other butterflies. In the areas where the Mormons occur, there are other species of butterflies that look like one or another morph of the Mormon females. These other species feed on toxic plants such as Aristolocia, which renders them unpalatable to predators. The Mormon females, which are palatable, mimic the unpalatable model thus gaining protection from predators that mistake them for the other bad tasting species. This type of mimicry has become known as Batesian mimicry in honor of Bates who first described it in 1862.

Male Common Mormon

The male has one morph only. It is a dark-coloured swallow-tailed butterfly. The upper forewing has a series of white spots decreasing in size towards the apex. The upper hindwing has a complete discal band of elongated white spots. It may or may not have marginal red crescents. The males are smaller in size than the females.

The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs. These are as follows:

• Form romulus: This female form mimics the Crimson Rose and is common over its range. It is not such a close mimic as the previous form being duller than its model, the Crimson Rose. It is easy to differentiate the mimics from models by the color of their body—the models are red-bodied and the mimics are black-bodied. This is the form you are seeing in these photographs.
• Form cyrus: This form is similar to the male, differing in that it always has strongly marked red crescents. It is the least common of the three forms. It is normally abundant where the Common Rose or Crimson Rose do not occur, such as in Himachal Pradesh around Shimla.
• Form stichius: This female form of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.

Closeup of female Common Mormon

Common Mormon butterfly is considered as the classic example of Batesian Mimicry in which edible species resemble unpalatable butterflies in order to escape being eaten by predators. The populations of the mimicking morphs of the Common Mormon are much smaller than that of their models – the Common or Crimson Rose. This is in order to allow first time predators a much greater chance of preying upon the unpalatable model in the first instance and thus learning of their in-edibility.

Larger populations of mimics could result in the edible Common Mormon mimics being sampled the first time by predators. If this should happen, the predator may not realize that butterflies of that color and pattern are protected by the poisons they ingest; thus dramatically reducing the effectiveness of this scheme of protection.

Mating Common Mormons

If you are wondering how these butterflies got their name, here is an interesting fact. Harish Gaonkar, of the Natural History Museum in London, recently wrote

the origins of giving common English names to organisms, particularly butterflies for tropical species started in India around the mid 19th century.The naming of Mormons evolved slowly. I think the first to get such a name was the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes), because it had three different females, a fact that could only have been observed in the field, and this they did in India. The name obviously reflected the Mormon sect in America, which as we know, practiced polygamy.

Mating Trouble

After photographing Female Plain Tiger, I was in the hunt for the Male Plain Tiger. As the Plain Tiger is known to be parasitized at least occasionally by Spiroplasma bacteria which selectively kill off male hosts, a subsequent scarcity of Plain Tiger males might have led to this hybridization and the evolution of the new species Dorippus Tiger (Danaus dorippus). From the color pattern of Danaus dorippus, it can be assumed that the ancient lineage had no black apex on the forewings, a character which is still absent in Danaus dorippus.

Mating Trouble

I was not disappointed as after few hours of hunting for a male, I got a bonus catch of mating plain tigers. I was using my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM on Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted with Canon EF 1.4x III Extender. After adjusting myself to a suitable position where these butterflies were clearly visible I patiently waited for long time to get that momentary glimpse of open wing. During mating period these butterflies hardly ever open their wings.

Mating Trouble

After few minutes I could witness a very brief glimpse of Male Plain Tiger opening his wings. The male Plain Tiger is smaller than the female, but more brightly colored. In addition, male plain tigers have a number of secondary sexual characteristics. The male has a pouch on the hind-wing. This spot is white with a thick black border and bulges slightly. It is a cluster of specialized scent scales used to attract females. The males also possess two brush-like organs which can be pushed out of the tip of the abdomen.

Within few minutes I found another male who came looking for female and found this pair. He was spiraling over the pair and each time he came near the mating male, that male used to open its wing to ward him off. Female was quiet and unmoved during any of these advances. This went on for a long time till both male and female started reacting (see the first picture on the top). After that threat the attacking male went away disappointed.

Mating Trouble

The life cycle of a butterfly is dependent on its ability to find a mate and reproduce. The adult butterfly spends much of its time in search of a mate. Insect flight is characterized into two groups, trivial flight and dispersal flight. A trivial flight involves behavior related to daily needs of the butterfly, while dispersal flights are related to migration. Mate locating behavior in male butterflies is also separated into two main categories, patrolling and perching.

Patrolling species fly through their habitat in search of females. Flight is almost constant in this type of behavior where the male uses the females scent to locate her. Wing color is also important with patrolling males. They instinctively know what the female’s wing pattern looks like and search for that pattern. The male is more attracted to the females predominant wing color than any other color, thus a male may be tricked into following an inanimate object that is the same color as the female.

Mating Trouble

In perching butterflies the males await receptive females in certain places and at certain times. A potential female flies past the male, who then darts out to investigate. If it is a suitable female then mating ensues, if not, the male will return to a roosting area to await another potential female. Females seem to know where the males will be perched; hence it is common to see them fluttering in that habitat waiting for a male.

Roosting areas are genetically fixed in each species and both sexes instinctively go to them. Anything passing through the habitat where a male is perching is likely to attract the male. It is very common to see male butterflies investigating other insects including other butterfly species, flies, dragonflies, bees, and wasps. If the male discovers another 2 male of its species a duel will result. Both males will fly in a spiraling manner upward until one, usually the primary resident, will fly back to its perch. This gives the false impression that butterflies are territorial. This is not true since the males are actually investigating whatever object they see in its view to determine if it is a female. Each of these factors play a vital part in mate-locating behavior and ultimately species perpetuation.

Mating Trouble

The main purpose of courtship is to determine if both individuals are healthy members of the correct species. In order for this to occur, adults use color pattern or odor to accept or reject an individual. Many species identify each other with visible colors or ultraviolet patterns seen on the wings. Ultraviolet is used by many butterflies to both identify mates and nectar bearing flowers.

If a female is ready to mate the male will wait until she lands and then will quickly mate with her without any complicated mating ritual. It is also possible that the two may fly in a zigzag pattern or hover beside each other before mating. Pheromones or perfumes are transferred at this time and a fluttering of the wings may occur. Wing fluttering may be an indication of mate acceptance or rejection. Special wing scales with glands contain the pheromones.

Mating Trouble

Sometimes the scales resemble brush-like tufts of hair on the wings and others resemble ordinary wing scales. If the male carries a pheromone he will usually flutter above the female to release his scent. The mating process lasts from 15 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the species. Small butterflies have a short mating span and large butterflies have longer ones, however, mating time also varies in cooler weather. Both sexes can mate more than once.

The male needs up to 8 hours after mating to produce another spermatophore to mate again, and the female may, in some species, be able to mate almost directly after she has finished with a previous mate. Females in most species are temporarily prevented from mating again due to the spermatophore in her mating tube. As soon as the spermatophore is digested she can mate again. The spermatophore has been the subject of many recent studies, and may play a key role in shaping the characteristics of the butterfly mating system.

Mating Trouble

If a female is unreceptive or has just mated, courtship will be more complicated. Females may perform several moves to discourage a male. For example, females may undergo a “rejection dance” in which she flies vertically into the air and then downward quickly so that the male cannot follow her or gets discouraged and leaves. Unreceptive females may also mimic a male when being approached by a perching male of her own species, this also discourages the male from attempting to mate. Females may simply crawl, fly away, or move her abdomen in between her wings so that a male cannot join with her.

Some species have specialized glands in the female called stink clubs to repel males. The stink clubs waft a foul-smelling chemical that males do not like. Stink clubs are engaged after a female has mated. Rejection in females serves a purpose. As stated above, newly mated females may not need to mate again or unreceptive female may try and encourage aggressive males to mate with her in order to obtain the best genetic material. It is important to realize that the female butterfly is not aware of this, it is simply natural selection at work. Most unreceptive females however may not mate at all.

Mating Trouble

Females in general either mate right away or not at all. After mating the female butterfly must find a suitable host plant to lay her eggs. She may almost be able to lay her eggs directly after she has mated, or she may wait several days. Some species can lay as many as 1,000 eggs but one to two hundred or less is more common. The female will fly slowly and land on many plants while searching for her host. The legs contain special clumps of hair-like taste organs and she will use these to test the plants and identify it. Observing this behavior in females may enable one to find the host plant in a habitat.

When the female has found a host plant she will begin to flutter around it and curve her abdomen downward and forward to lay an egg with her ovipositor. The ovipositor has very sensitive hairs that probably taste the plant as well. Females that lay clusters of eggs may take a long time, an hour or more, and visit the same plant repeatedly. Eggs are usually laid singly and glued to the host. Eggs laid on leaves are placed on the underside in most cases and other females will avoid that leaf when searching for places to lay their eggs. Most butterflies lay their eggs on plants that can be eaten by the larva. This is due to the larva’s poor ability to find food. They see weakly and travel slowly. In most cases if a larva does not find its host plant, it dies. Death can also occur if the larva eats an unsuitable plant. Some however do lay their eggs haphazardly on anything around the host plant.

Mating Trouble