Owl butterfly (genus Caligo): photos and features of a unique butterfly

The tropical forests of South America are full of life, variegated colors flicker through the green foliage. Local insects have found many mechanisms to protect them from enemies. The most effective is camouflage. The wings of tropical moths are covered with patterns reminiscent of birds of prey or snakes. The owl butterfly got its name for its masterful imitation of the bird's appearance. Two large ocelli on the back of the hind wings and the surrounding patterns faithfully reproduce the face of an owl. Attacking predators retreat in fear, seeing a formidable enemy instead of a defenseless moth.

Features and habitat of blueberry

Blueberry (in Latin Lycaenidae) is the second most common family on earth, has about five thousand varieties and occupies approximately thirty percent of the species known to science today. You can meet this miracle almost all over the globe, but most often in the tropics.

By analyzing a photo of a blueberry, you can describe its external features, such as size and color. This butterfly, in its wingspan, rarely reaches more than four centimeters, with the exception of several tropical species that have reached six centimeters.

The blueberry received its name directly because of its color, which has a blue or bluish tint; more rare are the blueberry with a red and brownish color.

Like many other creatures, they have such a concept as dimorphism, that is, external differences depending on gender. More specifically, in bluebirds, dimorphism is manifested precisely in color; males are usually brighter than females!

Mature individuals have six legs; in many males the front two are poorly developed. Hairy body, including head and eyes, occasionally bare. There is a pair of antennae and short palps.

The blueberry butterfly lives next to nutritious plants, on forest edges, near rivers and streams covered with dense vegetation. They are not inclined to travel long distances, so they may not leave a certain area of ​​the terrain their entire lives.

Variety

In alphabetical order within groups:[3]

There are about twenty species in this genus, which can be divided into six groups, which may form subgenera. However, some species cannot be classified in these groups:

• C. eurilochus
  species group
  Caligo bellerophon
  Stichel, 1903
• Caligo brasiliensis
  (K. Felder, 1862) - Brazilian owl, almond-shaped owl[4]
• Caligo eurylochus
  (Kramer, [1775]) - forest giant owl
• Caligo Idomeneus
  (Linnaeus, 1758) - Idomeneus the giant owl
• Caligo illionaeus
  (Kramer, [1775]) - Giant owl Illionaeus
• Caligo memnon
  (K. and R. Felder, [1867]) - giant owl, pallid owl
• Caligo Prometheus
  (Collar, 1850)
• Caligo suzanna
  (Deyrol, 1872)
• Caligo telamonius
  (K. and R. Felder, 1862) - yellow-fronted owl[4]
• Caligo Teucer
  (Linnaeus, 1758) - Teucer giant owl

• Caligo Idomeneo

  —MHNT

• Caligo Teucer

  —MHNT

• Caligo Oedipus
• Caligo telamonius

  in Costa Rica

Keeping at home

The owl butterfly is an excellent option for keeping at home. She is not shy, quickly gets used to the presence of a person, and sits on your hand. There are no problems with feeding the pet. In captivity, it is enough to place cut oranges, overripe bananas, peaches and plums in front of the insects. The butterfly itself unwinds its spiral proboscis and begins to feed. Feeding occurs once a day, takes 5-15 minutes.

Caligos love sweet drinks, such as homemade wine. For the moth it is necessary to create suitable conditions:

• room temperature – 23-28°C;
• humidity not lower than 60-70%.

Maintaining humidity is extremely important for the health of lepidoptera. Their limbs and wings quickly dry out and crumble. It is necessary to maintain humidity by periodically spraying the insect itself, from a distance of about 1 m. A damp cloth is left in the container where the butterfly will be placed. Adults of the genus Caligo live 20-21 days in natural conditions. With proper care they will live for 2-3 months.

Habitat and favorable environment

These bright and beautiful creatures are typical inhabitants of Eurasia. They are found from Spain to the borders of Japan

. Most of them live in Germany, and in this country in 2009 the peacock butterfly was recognized as the butterfly of the year. The most favorable habitat for these creatures is open space. They feel most comfortable when they flutter around the territory:

They can often be seen in parks, squares and gardens. For normal existence and development

they need life-giving moisture and space. Terrains such as deserts or dense forests are not suitable for them, and due to the cold climate they cannot live in the polar tundra. They cannot be seen on the island of Crete or in the northern part of the African continent.

Life cycle

Peacock's eye is a migratory insect that can cover vast distances. In mountainous areas they can fly at altitudes of up to 2,500 meters

above sea level. These beautiful creatures are diurnal. In winter, they fly to areas with damp and cool climates. The life cycle of this butterfly species consists of 4 stages:

• egg;
• caterpillar;
• chrysalis;
• imago (butterfly).

Adults winter in secluded and cool places. Sometimes they may be in a pupal state

. A cool climate is considered a prerequisite for normal wintering. It happens that a butterfly chooses a warm place indoors for wintering, and in this case it runs the risk of not surviving until spring, since it may die. In winter, during hibernation, a warm climate will promote a more active metabolism and this will accelerate the aging of the insect.

Peacock eye

Nutrition and reproduction

There are two main phases in the life of a butterfly - the caterpillar and the adult insect. The food for the adult caterpillar is plant food:

• hop;
• raspberries;
• nettle;
• willow leaves.

When it passes the pupal stage and enters the adult insect state
, it begins to feed on nectar alone. The daytime peacock's eye has a close relative, the nocturnal peacock's eye. These butterflies, upon reaching adulthood, live in a state of aphagia and do not feed at all. Even in the caterpillar state, they accumulate the necessary supply of food, which is why they are considered very voracious insects.

When the female reaches adulthood, she lays eggs

, attaching them to the lower part of the nettle leaves. Just one individual peacock eye is able to lay up to 300 eggs at a time. Between May and August, the peacock's eye is in a caterpillar state. Its color is black with white speckles. They always live close to each other. They part only during the cocoon weaving period.

The peacock eye remains in this phase for about two weeks and the entire body of the pupa is greenish in color.

. After a two-week stay in this phase, a beautiful butterfly with beautiful long wings is born, which captivates with its bright and delicate beauty.

An interesting fact is that the voracious butterfly, feeding on plant foods, does not harm plants

. Such amazing insects are created only to be admired, obviously, therefore they cannot be pests.

In this article we will tell you how the one in question differs and why it was called that. This insect received the name peacock eye from the Latin language.

In Latin this name is written like this: nachis io. This name is translated into Russian as daytime peacock eye. The butterfly belongs to the nymphalidae family. There are two common species of peacock butterfly

:

Day peacock butterfly; -butterfly night peacock eye.

In the photo there is a night peacock butterfly

Recommendations

1. Andre V. L. Freitas; Woodruff W. Benson; Onildo G. Marini-Filho; Roberta M. de Carvalho (1995). "Territoriality in the early light of dawn: the Neotropical owl butterfly" Caligo idomeneus
   (Nymphalidae: Brassolinae)" (PDF).
   Journal of Lepidoptera Research
   .
   34
   (1–4): 14–20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
2. Robert B. Srigley and Carla M. Pentz (1999). "Lekking in Neotropical owl butterflies, Caligo illionea
   and
   C. oileus
   (Lepidoptera: Brassolinae)."
   Journal of Insect Behavior
   .
   12
   (1): 81–103. Doi:10.1023/A: 1020981215501. S2CID 30918158.
3. " Caligo
   Hübner, [1819]" in Markku Savela
   Lepidoptera and some other life forms
4. ^ a b c d
   Glassberg, J. (2007).
   A Quick Guide to the Butterflies of Mexico and Central America
   . Sunstreak Books. p.132.
5. Sebastiano De Bona, Janne K. Valkonen, Andres Lopez-Sepulcre, Johanna Mappes (2015). “Predator facial expressions, not conspicuousness, explain the effectiveness of butterfly eyespots.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
   .
   282
   (1806): 20150202. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.0202. PMC 4426626. PMID 25854889.CS1 maint: several names: list of authors (contact)
6. Martin Stevens (2005). "The role of eyespots as anti-predator mechanisms, mainly demonstrated in Lepidoptera." Biological Reviews
   .
   80
   (4):573–588. Doi:10.1017/S1464793105006810. PMID 16221330. S2CID 24868603.
7. Martin Stevens, Chloe J. Hardman and Claire L. Stubbins (2008). "It is conspicuousness, not eye expression, that makes 'eye spots' effective signals against predators." Behavioral Ecology
   .
   19
   (3):525–531. Doi:10.1093/beheco/arm162.

Lifestyle of owl butterflies

Owl butterfly from the genus Caligo, side view

Tropical butterflies are active mainly at dusk: early in the morning (from 7 to 10 a.m.) or in the afternoon until sunset (from 4 p.m. to dark). It is at this time of day that they go in search of food. Owl butterflies descend from the trees to the ground, open their proboscis and drink the sweet juice of overripe fruits. They can eat a variety of fruits, but their preference is for overripe bananas.

The butterfly spends most of the day motionless, hiding in the shadows; they are located on tree trunks and branches. The insect folds its wings behind its back in such a way that their reverse side is visible, with a pattern imitating an owl. Such a pattern is a unique form of mimicry: thanks to it, small animals try to avoid insects, because they believe that in front of them is not a butterfly, but a large predator.

The natural enemy of the butterfly is the arboreal forest lizard anole. It measures 10-30 cm and deftly climbs under trees, looking for prey. The butterfly, noticing the lizard, falls on its back and opens its wings, thereby trying to scare away the predator, and most often it succeeds.

At night, butterflies are hunted by bats. But the owl butterfly has ultrasonic hearing and voice, which helps it protect itself from nocturnal predators. If she hears a bat, she uses ultrasound to find it and gives an audible warning with a highly distorted frequency. As a result, the bat has an incorrect image of space and misses, but the butterfly manages to escape from it.

How to determine the lifespan of winged beauties

How long do “flying flowers” ​​live? The life cycle consists of all phases of insect development:

• egg;
• caterpillar;
• chrysalis;
• adult, imago.

When determining the life span of a butterfly, scientists take into account the duration of each stage. Therefore, the time frame is much longer than several days. It is not surprising: the future butterfly spends most of its existence in some stages.

When determining the duration of the life cycle of the Vanessa species, it is taken into account that the insect spends 4 days in the egg phase, and up to a decade in the caterpillar stage, depending on the amount of accumulated fat for transformation into a moth. In the form of a pupa, the future butterfly will live for about a week, and then - apotheosis, transformation into the ideal of grace and beauty.

However, the adult will remain charmed with light wings for about two weeks, no more. And during this period she must have time to lay eggs. Probably for this reason, nature allowed female butterflies to live several days longer than males.

Life cycle components

The lifespan of a moth depends on many factors. The duration is affected by:

• climatic conditions;
• species affiliation;
• coloring

The lifespan of butterflies largely depends on the climate. Most of the species live in tropical and subtropical conditions: capricious beauties love warmth and light. But geographic latitude directly determines the lifespan of an insect.

How long will the insect live? Inhabitants of northern latitudes can live up to two years. In fairly harsh conditions there is little food, the larva does not have time to accumulate useful substances to move to the next stage. The pupa will not be able to become a butterfly next spring. Thanks to “preservation”, the life of the future winged beauty is extended by a whole year!

Affect the lifespan of butterflies and insect migrations. During the year, beautiful creatures make 2 flights, from late spring to early autumn. During this time, 2 generations of adults will change. The pupae will “open” at the end of summer or early spring.

Northern butterflies are stronger than southern ones!

The species to which the moth belongs also plays a significant role. How long does an insect live? Some species live no more than a few hours. And the period is calculated from the laying of eggs until the transformation into an adult. It is wrong to believe that all butterflies can live for several hours or days: on average, they delight people with their beauty for several weeks. True, there are also long-livers.

These include the inhabitants of northern latitudes. Insects have an amazing feature. They fall into suspended animation. In this state, metabolic processes slow down and energy is not spent on maintaining life. Butterflies are resistant even to the treatment of plants with pesticides at this time!

Long-lived among the “flying flowers”

The record holders among winged beauties are insects of the Monarch species. Adults can live up to a year, setting a real record among lepidoptera.

Cabbage plants flutter through the air for about a month. Some of the lemongrass specimens manage to live for several years, even withstanding temperatures below 20 degrees below zero! And blueberry butterflies enjoy life for several days. They were given the shortest possible sentence.

At home, the winged beauty will live longer than in nature. But how much effort will have to be made for this!

Temperature and wintering time also affect the butterfly's lifespan. Severe cold can destroy delicate creatures, and in the warmth of a human home or during a thaw, a moth released from a state of suspended animation can die from exhaustion.

Victims of beauty?

It is known that during its life the graceful beauty goes through several stages, turning from a larva into a caterpillar; a butterfly is the final phase of development. If the insect has not had time to accumulate nutrients for the next stage, it lives longer. The lifetime increases to several years!

Due to the variety of colors, the wonderful “flying flowers” ​​have no rivals in the world of insects. There are amazing specimens. Among them are a transparent butterfly, recognized as a real miracle of nature, and tropical beauties shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, among which there are real giants with a wingspan of up to 28 cm.

But it is the coloring that causes the shortening of the lifespan: collectors are willing to pay a lot of money to decorate their collections with the desired specimens.

Features of character and lifestyle

Photo: Daytime peacock butterfly

The adult form appears at the beginning of summer and enjoys life until September - more precisely, until the autumn cold arrives. These butterflies spend a significant part of their lives in flight, and it can be either active or passive - thanks to their wide wings, they save energy by simply gliding.

They are active only in the light of the sun - as soon as it starts to get cold in the evening, they look for a place to spend the night. They love sunlight and warmth very much, because they require a lot of energy to fly, so they can bask in the sun for a long time before starting their next flight.

They also need good weather to fly. Therefore, if rainy and cold periods in the summer drag on, the peacock’s eye enters diapause - the butterfly falls into a short summer hibernation. She usually spends up to a week in it and returns to active life immediately after it becomes warm and sunny again.

The peacock's eye is a real long-liver; in total, not counting periods of hibernation, it can live up to a year. After the onset of cold weather, it goes to wintering. It is noteworthy that in particularly warm areas, a peacock’s eye can overwinter a second time and wake up from hibernation again in the spring.

Thus, this butterfly can be found in the subtropics throughout most of the year - from March to October. Of course, in temperate latitudes this is much less likely; in the spring, only butterflies accidentally awakened by a thaw can be found, and they fly for only a short time.

Alas, death will probably await them, because a butterfly that wakes up ahead of time spends a lot of energy and cannot replenish it in the required amount - although sometimes it manages to find shelter and continue wintering in order to wake up again when it becomes really warm.

To overwinter, she needs to find a place where it will not be as cold as in the open air, but not warm either: she can climb under the bark of trees, deep into the forest floor, into balconies and attics. The main thing is that this place is protected from the cold and predators.

During hibernation, the butterfly can withstand freezing temperatures, although their exposure is undesirable. But she will not be able to react to the attack, nor will she be able to replenish her reserves of nutrients - so she needs to choose a secluded place and stock up on them in advance.

Internal structure

Nervous system

Butterflies have a perfect nervous system and sensory organs, thanks to which they are perfectly oriented in their surroundings and quickly respond to danger signals. The nervous system, like that of all arthropods, consists of a peripharyngeal ring and a ventral nerve cord. In the head, as a result of the fusion of clusters of nerve cells, the brain is formed. This system controls all movements of the butterfly, except for such involuntary functions as blood circulation, digestion, and breathing. Researchers believe that these functions are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system.

Circulatory system

The circulatory system, like that of all arthropods, is not closed. Blood directly washes the internal organs and tissues while in the body cavity, transferring nutrients to them and carrying harmful waste products to the excretory organs. It does not participate in the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide, that is, in respiration. Its movement is ensured by the work of the heart - a longitudinal muscular tube located in the dorsal part above the intestines. The heart, pulsating rhythmically, drives blood to the head end of the body. The backflow of blood is prevented by the heart valves. When the heart expands, blood enters it from the back of the body through its side openings, which are equipped with valves that prevent blood from flowing back. In the body cavity, unlike the heart, blood flows from the front end to the back, and then, entering the heart as a result of its pulsation, it is again directed to the head.

Respiratory system and excretory system

The respiratory system is a dense network of branched internal tubes - tracheas, through which air, entering through the external spiracles, is delivered directly to all internal organs and tissues.

The excretory system is a bundle of thin tubes, the so-called Malpighian vessels, located in the body cavity. They are closed at the tops, and open at the bases into the intestines. Metabolic products are filtered out by the entire surface of the Malpighian vessels, and then inside the vessels they turn into crystals. Then they enter the intestinal cavity and, together with undigested food debris, are excreted from the body. Some harmful substances, especially poisons, accumulate and are isolated in the fat body.

Reproductive system

The female reproductive system consists of two ovaries, in which eggs are formed. The ovaries, passing into tubular oviducts, merge at their bases into a single unpaired oviduct, through which mature eggs are released. In the female reproductive system there is a spermatheca - a reservoir into which male sperm enter. Mature eggs can be fertilized by these sperm. The reproductive organs of the male are two testes that pass into the vas deferens, which unite into an unpaired ejaculatory duct, which serves to remove sperm.

Owl butterfly from the genus Caligo: reproduction and life cycle

Owl butterfly, caterpillar

In butterflies of this species there is competition between males for the attention of the female. The male courts the female for a long time, and after the nuptial flights, the butterflies mate on the branches.

The female lays eggs on banana branches, usually 3 in a row, and after 5-7 days caterpillars emerge from them. But not all eggs give birth; some of them die.

The first instar larvae are white with orange or brown stripes running along their body. After molting, the larvae change their color to green, they have horns on the back of their heads and spines on their body.

The larvae of the 4th instar are also different: they are brown in color, their body is covered with hairs, and there are two “tails” on the last segment of the abdomen. The brown tint helps the caterpillars camouflage themselves on the stems of banana leaves, and they also begin to move onto tree branches and trunks.

During the day, the larvae rest on the midrib of the leaf; they stay in groups and stack one after another: the head of each subsequent caterpillar lies on the end of the abdomen of the previous one. At night, they feed on the underside or upper side of the leaves of food plants.

Pupation occurs on the food plant; the pupae have a brown or greenish tint.