Red Pierrot Butterfly

Facts of Red Pierrot Butterfies, "Scientific name for Red Pierrot Butterfly Talicada nyseus". The Red Pierrot Butterfly is a small striking butterfly inhabiting the South Asia and the South-East Asia. It belongs to the Lycaenids family. The Red Pierrot Butterfly striking colors and patterns often make them noticeable in their habitation. The Red Pierrot has a wingspan ranging between 1 1/16 to 1 1/8 inches (3 to 3.5 cm ) long. The upper side of the wings is characterized by a mainly black color with an orange patch just at the lower edge of its hind wings. The Red Pierrot Butterfly fore-wings on the underside are also black with white spots on the margin of the wing while the hind wing is white with striking black spots towards the base. The margin is also characterized by an orange band with white spots. Variation in pattern and size is notable in the black spots of the Red Pierrot Butterfly in the hind wings.

Red Pierrot butterfly is a weak flier. The Red Pierrot Butterfly flutters about just very close to the ground and flies in short bursts settling very much often though not for too long. The Red Pierrot Butterfly like basking in the sun with their wings half open and mainly prefers shade to sun. it likes keeping on the wing on until it is dark in the evening where Red Pierrot Butterfly settles on the underside of leaves or twigs often in company. It seems very sluggish in early morning and late in the evening.

Habitat

The Red Pierrot butterflies are mainly found on semi-arid plains, evergreen patches that are degraded and semi-evergreen forests. Majorly, the Red Pierrot Butterfly are found in regions where the Kalanchoe, their main food plant is found in abundance. It majorly inhabits altitudes of up to 8000 feet (2438 meters). The Red Pierrot Butterfly are widely found in the Peninsular India and the hilly regions of northeast India and the northern side of Myanmar. Due to habitat changes, the Red Pierrot Butterfly might as well be on their way to colonizing the Himalayas.

Reproduction

The female Red Pierrot butterflies lay eggs on the undersides of leaves. Due to the succulent nature of the Kalanchoe leaves at all times, the females lay eggs irrespective of the stage of growth of the leaves.

The caterpillars of these butterflies have a range of colors from pale yellow to a dark white with large black spiracles. The Red Pierrot Butterfly bodies are covered with tiny white bristle-like hair. Once it is hatched, the caterpillar bores into the leaf and spends its entire life in the layers of the leaf. This is one of the ways it defends itself from predators. In the leaf, the Red Pierrot caterpillar consumes the whole leaf in a spiral manner leaving black trails filled with droppings in its way. Unless when changing leaves or pupating, the caterpillar cannot be seen on any other time.

During pupation, the caterpillar comes to the surface of the leaf to form a silk pad and a body band in order to moult into a pupa. The pupa is yellow with long light hairs and black spots covering its body.

A Red Pierrot Butterfly has a small body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Red Pierrot Butterfly has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Red Pierrot Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A Red Pierrot Butterfly’s 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 Red Pierrot Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Red Pierrot Butterfly's wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Red Pierrot Butterfly's wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A 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.

An adult Red Pierrot 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.

The larva feeds on the host plants. The larva’s host plants are Kalanchoe laciniata and K. pinnata of the Crassulaceae family.

The adult Red Pierrot Butterfly like taking nectar from the herbal flowers of amaranthceae and the acanthaceae family. Its favorite flowers include those from the Alternathera varieties. The Red Pierrot Butterfly often sits with its wings closed to display the bright markings on the underside of its wings. It is a protected species due to its fearlessness and weak flight. Adults collect phenolic substances by scrapping lichens. Red Pierrot Butterfly are insects. A Red Pierrot 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 Red Pierrot 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.

The Red Pierrot Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red. An adult Red Pierrot Butterfly average life span is from a week to a year
The top flight speed of a Red Pierrot Butterfly is 12 miles per hour and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour.
A Red Pierrot Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Red Pierrot Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Red Pierrot Butterfly's 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 Red Pierrot Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of butterfly.