Common Crow Butterfly.
This butterfly is called Common Crow (Euploea Core) and they are found in many Brisbane gardens. They are also referred to as the Common Indian Crow in India and they belong to the Crow and Tiger subfamily Danainae. The Common Crow feed on oleander flowers and figs. The caterpillars are boldly striped and have four pairs of tentacles.
The pupa are spectacular, with their shiny metallic silver or gold colours as they hang, suspended from leaves. Being so numerous, the pupa are a striking sight on their host plant. Their black wings have rows of white spots on their margins and their wingspan is about 8 - 9 cms.
The Common Crow has natural protection against predators due to chemicals extracted from the latex of the food plants consumed in their caterpillar stage. This allows them to fly around undeterred in a leisurely manner with its wings held slightly above the horizontal. This self confident behaviour is evidence of its effective inedibility to predators. For the uninitiated, they will attempt to attack the butterfly but it soon learns to avoid these butterflies as the alkaloids in its body cause predators to vomit.
These butterflies have tough, leathery wings and when it is attacked, it pretends to die and in the process, expels a liquid which causes any predators to release them. And before you know it, the common crow butterfly recovers ‘miraculously’ after the predator thinks it has been killed.
In humid weather, large numbers of these butterflies gather around the mud-puddles on wet sand. They gravitate to damaged parts of plants such as Crotalaria, Heliotropium to forage for chemical precursors to produce pheromones.
Along with other Danaids such as the Tigers, the Common Crow is one of the most common migrating butterfly species. Males and females in equal proportions have been seen to migrate.
This image was created by applying bronze coloured effects which I think are very appealing.
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