This Texas butterfly lives at the bottom of Texas and takes flight between January and November. The colors of this butterfly are mostly black and on the tips of their 1 ½ inch wing span is a little bit of yellow. Also, on the base of these wings are red dots also on the edges as well. During their flight between January and November, they fly between the range of South Texas and Costa Rico.

           

Its habitat is the lowland tropical forest or in city parks. This butterfly will come out on overcast days or before the afternoon in the early morning. They lay their eggs in 10-30 eggs at a time. But, they can’t leave them anywhere. They leave their eggs on the host trees leaves, bark, or stems. They all eat the leaves of the tree and grow together.

             

The life cycle is simple. After the eggs are laid on the tree leaves, stem, or bark then it will stay there as a larva. A larva is the first step of its growing cycle. After that, then it will go on to a caterpillar stage where it can move and eat. Next, is the pupa stage. A pupa is a silk like thread woven on example a branch. Lastly, the final stage is the adult butterfly.

           

The diet of this adult butterfly is the nectar of Pithecellobiumdulce, Albizia, Inga, Coffea, Cordia, Lantana, and Citrus. The diet of the caterpillar is Pithecellobiumdulce, Albizia, and Inga species. They are all in the pea family.

 

Author: Tyler R

Published:

 

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/odephoto/2301685635/

 

Taxonomy:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/12663/bgpage