Tirumala limniace

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Blue Tiger redirects here. For the big cat, see Maltese Tiger.

Blue Tiger
Blue Tiger, Tirumala limniace
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Superfamily: Papilionoidea Family: Nymphalidae Subfamily: Danainae Genus: Tirumala Species: T. limniace
Binomial name
Tirumala limniace Cramer, 1775

The Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Crows and Tigers, that is, the Danaid group of the Brush-footed butterflies family. This butterfly shows gregarious migratory behaviour in southern India.

Contents 1 Description 2 Life cycle 2.1 Food-plants 2.2 Larva 2.3 Pupa 3 Range 4 Habit 5 References 6 Gallery 7 See also

[edit] Description

Upperside black, with bluish-white semihyaline spots and streaks. Fore wing: interspace 1 two streaks, sometimes coalescent, with a spot beyond cell: a streak from base and an outwardly indented spot at its apex; a large oval spot at base of interspace 2, another at base of interspace 3, with a smaller spot beyond it towards termen; five obliquely placed preapical streaks, and somewhat irregular subterminal and terminal series of spots, the latter the smaller. Hind wing: interspaces 1b, 1a, and 1 with streaks from base, double in the latter two, cell with a forked broad streak, the lower branch with a hook, or spur-like slender loop, at base of 4 and 5 a broad elongate streak, and at base of 6 a quadrate spot; beyond these again a number of scattered unequal subterminal and terminal spots.

Underside: basal two-thirds of fore wing dusky black, the apex and hind wing olive-brown; the spots and streaks much as on the upperside, Antennae, head and thorax black, the latter two spotted and streaked with, white; abdomen dusky above, ochraceous spotted with white beneath. Male secondary sex-mark in form 1.^[1]

Expanse: 98-106 mm

[edit] Life cycle

[edit] Food-plants

The butterfly larva generally feed on plants of Family Asclepiadaceae. The recorded host plants are :-

• Asclepias
• Calotropis
• Heterostemma
• Marsdenia
• Dregea volubilis
• Heterostemma cuspidatum
• Hoya viridiflora
• Marsdenia tenacissima
• Crotalaria spp.
• Epibaterium spp.
• Soya ^[1]

[edit] Larva

Yellowish white; 3rd and 12th segments, each with a pair of fleshy filaments, black and greenish white; each of the segments with four transverse black bars, the second bar on all broader than the others, bifurcated laterally, a yellow longitudinal line on each side; head, feet and claspers spotted with black.^[1]

[edit] Pupa

"Green with golden scattered spots and beaded dorsal crescent" (Frederic Moore quoted in Bingham)

[edit] Range

South Asia and Southeast Asia.

[edit] Habit

This species migrates extensively during the Monsoons in southern India. The migratory populations have been observed to be nearly entirely consisting of males.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Bingham, C. T. (1905) Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1
2. ^ Kunte, K. 2005. Species composition, sex-ratios and movement patterns in Danaine butterfly migrations in southern India. Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 102(3):280-286

[edit] Gallery

Egg	Caterpillar	Pupa	In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Male in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.	In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.Image:Blue Tigers I IMG 9768.jpg| Puddling In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.	In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.	In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.	In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

[edit] See also

• Danainae
• Nymphalidae
• List of butterflies of India
• List of butterflies of India (Nymphalidae)