Leopard Lacewing Butterfly

Facts about Leopard Lacewing Butterfly, "Scientific name for Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is Cethosia cyane". Leopard Lacewing is a variety of heliconiine butterfly that belongs to the genus Cethosia of the Nymphalidae family. The Leopard Lacewing Butterfly hail from India, China and Indochina. The Leopard Lacewing Butterfly adopt a host plant as they spread rapidly in wastelands. In the captive, they have also been bred productively on another plant in the identical family. This is the reason for the sightings of the Leopard Lacewing Butterfly in some regions of the nature reserves.

Features

The adult Leopard Lacewing butterfly is capable of attaining a wingspan of 80 mm. The upperside of the male Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is rich reddish tawny in color. In their fore wing, the two-thirds of the anterior and apical are black in color, which is waved and uneven. A line divides the cell longitudinally and rotating around the posterior angle. Beyond the apex of the cell, there is a small, wide, oblique, white collar bar, crossed by the veins, with a black color spot on the third and fourth interspaces. There is an oblique indistinct line of small spots and a terminal sequence of white color lunules.

On the back wing of the Leopard Lacewing butterfly there are three or four marks just beyond the apex of the cell, a sub-terminal line of marks. The termen is broad and black in color, and the last part with a sequence of white color lunules like on their fore wing.

The underside of the Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is variegated with white, red, light blue, ochraceous and black. The terminal borders of both black colored wings are broad, with white color lunules like on their upperside.

The female Leopard Lacewing butterflies have similar markings as that of the males, but the yellowish-brown ground-color is replaced by light greenish white. The upperside of the Leopard Lacewing Butterfly fore wing is somewhat brownish, and the amount of black on this wing is larger. The markings on the underside of the female Leopard Lacewing Butterfly are paler than that of the males, and red color at the bottom of the Leopard Lacewing Butterfly wings is replaced by the brownish yellow color on the fore wing, and a white color on their back wing. The head, Antennae and the thorax of both Leopard Lacewing butterflies are dusky brown in color and the above part of their abdomen is dusky, whereas the under part of their abdomen is white in color.

Diet

The adult Leopard Lacewing butterflies have the practice of visiting flowers and it feeds on their nectar. The caterpillars of the Leopard Lacewing Butterfly feed on the young shoots, leaves and external surface of grown-up stems of their host plant.

Breeding

The female Leopard Lacewing butterfly lays her eggs on the host plant in a huge and loose bunch on the surface, usually underneath a leaf, or on a young shoot of the plant. The Leopard Lacewing Butterfly eggs are yellow in color, and they assume the shape of a barrel, with a ridged surface. The eggs have a dimension between 1.3 mm and 1.4mm, and the diameter of their cross-section is between 0.8 mm and 0.9mm. The eggs take 5 to 6 days to hatch, and the newborn caterpillar eats a small part of the egg shell and drives its way through the break.

Leopard Lacewing Butterfly are insects. A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is a herbivore; Meaning that as a caterpillar its first food is its own eggshell and than it will eat the leaves of the plant on which it is hatched. When it becomes a Leopard Lacewing Butterfly, it will feed mostly on nectar from flowers, rotting fruit and water with a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw.

Life cycle of a Leopard Lacewing Butterfly comes in four stages, egg, larva "caterpillars", pupa "chrysalis" and adult Butterfly.
A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly will attach its eggs to leaves with a special glue.

When caterpillars become fully grown they will attach to an appropriate leaf or small branch, than they will shed the outside layer of their skin and a hard skin underneath known as a "chrysalis" will be their new look
An adult Leopard Lacewing Butterfly will come out from the "chrysalis" than it waits a few hours for its wings to dry and fill with blood, before it takes its first flight.

Leopard Lacewing Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red. An adult Leopard Lacewing average life span is from a week to a year
The top flight speed of a Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is 12 miles per hour and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour.
A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Leopard Lacewing Butterfly are often basking in the sun with their wings open to gain heat and than the veins in the wings carry the heat to the body.
A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of Leopard Lacewing.

A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly has a small body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Leopard Lacewing has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly mouth is a long tube a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw when its done eating, it rolls the tube back up.

A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Leopard Lacewing Butterfly wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Leopard Lacewing Butterfly wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A Leopard Lacewing Butterfly has four brightly colored wings having distinctive patterns made up of tiny scales. The bright patterns scales sometimes have hidden ultraviolet patterns for attracting mates. The bright colors are also used as camouflage to hide them or scare off predictors.