''Danaus genutia'', the common tiger, is one of the common

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of India. It belongs to the "crows and tigers", that is, the

Danainae Danainae is a subfamily of the family Nymphalidae, the brush-footed butterflies. The group may be referred to as the Danaids (reflecting their previous rank as a family) or milkweed butterflies, as they often lay their eggs on various milkweed ...

group of the

brush-footed butterflies The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have ...

family. The butterfly is also called striped tiger in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to differentiate it from the equally common plain tiger, ''

Danaus chrysippus ''Danaus chrysippus'', also known as the plain tiger, African queen, or African monarch, is a medium-sized butterfly widespread in Asia, Australia and Africa. It belongs to the Danainae subfamily of the brush-footed butterfly Family (biology), f ...

''.Kunte (2000): 45, pp. 148–149. The species was first described by

Pieter Cramer Pieter Cramer (21 May 1721 (baptized) – 28 September 1776) was a wealthy Netherlands, Dutch merchant in linen and Spanish wool, remembered as an entomologist. Cramer was the director of the Zealand Society, a scientific society located in Flushin ...

in 1779.

Description

The butterfly closely resembles the monarch butterfly (''

Danaus plexippus The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. I ...

'') of the Americas. The wingspan is . Both sexes of the butterfly have tawny wings with veins marked with broad black bands. The male has a pouch on the hindwing.Wynter-Blyth (1957): p. 69. The margins of the wings are black with two rows of white spots. The underside of the wings resembles the upperside but is paler in colouration. The male common tiger has a prominent black-and-white spot on the underside of the hindwing. In drier regions the tawny part of the hindwing pales and approaches white in colour making it very similar to the

white tiger The white tiger (ashy tiger) is a leucistic morph of the tiger, typically the Bengal tiger. It is occasionally reported in the Indian wilderness. It has the typical black stripes of a tiger, but its coat is otherwise white or near-white, and ...

(''D. melanippus''). Pairing of common tiger butterfly.jpg, Pairing in Bihar, India Stripedtiger egg sec.jpg, Egg Stripedtiger cat sec.jpg, Caterpillar Stripedtiger pupa sec.jpg, Pupa Danaus genutia female in Kerala, India.jpg, Female in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

Danaus genutia-male.jpg, Male in

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai, sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the List of municipalities in Thailand#Largest cities by urban population, second largest city in Thailan ...

Distribution and ecology

''D. genutia'' is distributed throughout India,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

and extending to

South-East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(except

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

). At least in the

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n part of its range it is fairly common, locally very common. This butterfly occurs in scrub jungles, fallow land adjacent to habitation, dry and moist deciduous forests, preferring areas of moderate to heavy rainfall. Also occurs in degraded hill slopes and ridges, both, bare or denuded, and, those covered with secondary growth. While it is a strong flier, it never flies rapidly or high. It has stronger and faster strokes than the plain tiger. The butterfly ranges forth in search of its host and nectar plants. It visits gardens where it nectars on the flowers of ''

Adelocaryum ''Adelocaryum'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae. Its native range is southern Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas ...

'', ''

Cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

'', ''

Celosia ''Celosia'' ( ) is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Its species are commonly known as woolflowers, or, if the flower heads are crested by fasciation, cockscombs. The plants are well known in E ...

'', ''

Lantana ''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial plant, perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropics, tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in num ...

'', ''

Zinnia ''Zinnia'' is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexic ...

'', and similar flowers.

Defence against predators, mimicry

Members of this genus are leathery, tough to kill and fake death. Since they are unpleasant to smell and taste, they are soon released by the predators, recover and fly off soon thereafter. The butterfly sequesters toxins from plants of the family

Asclepiadaceae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, it was treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family. They form a group of perennial herbs, twinin ...

. The butterflies also congregate with other danaines to sip from the sap of ''

Crotalaria ''Crotalaria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Fabaceae (subfamily Faboideae) commonly known as rattlepods. The genus includes over 700 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Africa is the continent with the major ...

'', ''

Heliotropium ''Heliotropium'' is a genus of flowering plants traditionally included in the family Boraginaceae ''s.l.'', but placed in the family Heliotropiaceae within the Boraginales order, by the Boraginales Working Group.. There are around 325 species ...

'' and other plants which provide the

pyrrolizidine alkaloid Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), sometimes referred to as necine bases, are a group of naturally occurring alkaloids based on the structure of pyrrolizidine. Their use dates back centuries and is intertwined with the discovery, understanding, and e ...

s which they sequester. A study in north-eastern India showed a preference to foraging on ''

Crotalaria juncea ''Crotalaria juncea'', known as brown hemp, Indian hemp, Madras hemp, or Sunn hemp, is a tropical Asian plant of the legume family (Fabaceae). It is generally considered to have originated in India.Heuzé V., Thiollet H., Tran G., Lebas F., 20 ...

'' compared to '' Bauhinia purpurea'', '' Barleria cristata rosea'' and ''

Nerium oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the Monotypic taxon, only species currently classifi ...

''. To advertise their unpalatability, the butterfly has prominent markings with a striking colour pattern. The striped tiger is

mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

ked by both sexes of the Indian Tamil lacewing ('' Cethosia nietneri mahratta'') and the leopard lacewing ('' Cethosia cyane'') and females of the common palmfly (''

Elymnias hypermnestra ''Elymnias hypermnestra'', the common palmfly, is a species of satyrine butterfly found in South and Southeast Asia. Description As in some other species in the genus ''Elymnias'', the common palmfly has a precostal cell in the hindwings and a ...

'').Wynter-Blyth (1957): p. 56.

Life history

This butterfly lays its egg singly under the leaves of any of its host plants of family

. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

is black and marked with bluish-white and yellow spots and lines. It has three pairs of tentacles on its body. It first eats the eggshell and then proceeds to eat leaves and vegetative parts of the plant. The

chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

(pupa) is green and marked with golden-yellow spots. The caterpillar of the common tiger butterfly obtains a supply of poison by eating poisonous plants, which make the caterpillar and butterfly a distasteful morsel for predators. The most common food plants of the common tiger in peninsular India are small herbs, twiners and creepers from the family

, including: * ''

Asclepias curassavica ''Asclepias curassavica'', commonly known as tropical milkweed, is a flowering plant species of the milkweed genus, ''Asclepias''. It is native to the Neotropical realm, American tropics and has a pantropical distribution as an introduced species ...

'' * ''

Ceropegia intermedia ''Ceropegia'' is a genus of plants within the family (biology), family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus, who first described this genus in his ''Genera plantarum'', which appeared in 173 ...

''Wynter-Blyth (1957): p. 493. * '' Cynanchum dalhousieae'' * '' Raphistemma pulchellum'' * ''

Stephanotis ''Stephanotis'' is a genus of flowering plants first described in 1806. The name derives from the Greek στεφανωτής (''stephanōtís'') meaning, by sense, “fit for a crown”—from στέφανος (''stéphanos''), “crown”. It c ...

'' species (including '' S. floribunda''?) * '' Tylophora tenuis''

Subspecies

It has some 16

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

; its

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ary relationships are not completely resolved, but it appears to be closest to the

Malay tiger ''Danaus affinis'', the Malay tiger, mangrove tiger or swamp tiger, is a butterfly found in tropical Asia. It belongs to the "crows and tigers", the danaine group of the brush-footed butterflies family. This is a highly variable species. In ...

(''D. affinis'') and white tiger.Smith et al. (2005) * ''D. g. genutia'' (India to China, Sri Lanka, Andamans, Nicobars, Peninsular Malaya, Thailand, Langkawi, Singapore, Indochina, Taiwan, Hainan) * ''D. g. sumatrana'' Moore, 1883 (western and north-eastern Sumatra) * ''D. g. intermedia'' (Moore, 1883) * ''D. g. conspicua'' Butler, 1866 (southern Sulawesi) * ''D. g. niasicus'' Fruhstorfer, 1899 (Nias) * ''D. g. intensa'' (Moore, 1883) (Java, Bali, Bawean, Borneo) * ''D. g. partita'' (Fruhstorfer, 1897) (Lesser Sunda) * ''D. g. leucoglene'' C. & R. Felder, 1865 (northern Sulawesi) * ''D. g. tychius'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Selajar) * ''D. g. telmissus'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Butong Island) * ''D. g. wetterensis'' (Fruhstorfer, 1899) (Wetar Island, Timor) * ''D. g. laratensis'' (Butler, 1883) (Tanimbar Island) * ''D. g. kyllene'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Damar Island, Kai Island) * ''D. g. alexis'' (Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914) (Northern Territory to north-western Australia)

References

* Bhuyan, M.; Deka, M.; Kataki, D. & Bhattacharyya, P. R. (2005). Nectar host plant selection and floral probing by the Indian butterfly ''Danaus genutia'' (Nymphalidae). ''Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera'' 38: 79–84
PDF fulltext
* . * * Smith, David A. S.; Lushai, Gugs & Allen, John A. (2005). A classification of ''Danaus'' butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA. '' Zool. J. Linn. Soc.'' 144(2): 191–212. (HTML abstract) *

Footnotes

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q718721 Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies of Singapore Butterflies of Sri Lanka Danaus (butterfly) Butterflies described in 1779 Insects of Pakistan Butterflies of Australia Taxa named by Pieter Cramer

Description

Distribution and ecology

Defence against predators, mimicry

Life history

Subspecies

See also

References

Footnotes

External links