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Dryadula phaetusa
Dryadula is a monotypic genus of the butterfly family Nymphalidae. Its single species is Dryadula phaetusa, known as the banded orange heliconian, banded orange, or orange tiger. Its wingspan ranges from 86 - 89 mm, and it is colored a bright orange with thick black stripes in males, and a duller orange with fuzzier black stripes in females. It feeds primarily on the nectar of flowers and bird droppings, and its caterpillar feeds on passion vines including Passiflora tetrastylis. It is generally found in lowland tropical fields and valleys.
The banded orange heliconian is native from Brazil to central Mexico, and in summer it can be found rarely as far north as central Kansas.
This species is somewhat unpalatable to birds and belongs to the "orange" Batesian mimicry complex.
Spotted on May 27, 2015
Submitted on Jun 17, 2015
2 Comments
Tnx ;) those are common all around Brazil and Bolivia, especially in the Pantanal region, you can see them sitting on the top of cayman's nose!
Great spotting injica.