Godart's Numberwing or Pygas Eighty-eight

Callicore pygas eucale

Notes:

I was following the development of a chrysalis all night long. It made some vigorous moves from time to time, and it seemed that the butterfly was about to come out. At 4 AM I gave up and went to bed. This is what I found when I wake up some 3 hours latter... Photo #2 shows the empty chrysalis, and photo #4 shows the real size of the butterfly. A fresh chrysalis can be seen here: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/894...

Species ID Suggestions

19 Comments

IrungbamJatishworSingh 11 years ago

Beautiful..

MayraSpringmann 11 years ago

Wow! Fascinating!

Jolly Ibañez 11 years ago

I had a similar experience wherein I was not able to watch the actual emergence. When I woke up, the moth had just come out of the chrysalis. I was about a minute late: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/127...

Jolly Ibañez 11 years ago

Very beautiful asergio.

Sumukha Javagal 11 years ago

Wonderful series Sergio..!

Sergio Monteiro 11 years ago

Thank you for the comments, Keith. In regard to your questions, I must say that, until now, my approach to these creatures is that of a photographer, not of a biologist. So, the information I can provide is very limited. I imagine that a scientific study of incidence and distribution of the caterpillars, identification of species and following the growth and metamorphosis processes would demand the delimitation of a field, a rigorous counting of individuals, etc. Ive been in touch with local university professors, but they don't seem too interested in projects other than their own ones. What I CAN do, and will start from now on, is to keep some individuals, and try to raise them at home. There are several of these chrysalis around, but I see very few caterpillars (actually, I think I saw only two). The reasons for never doing it before are: first, I always resisted to staged photos, I think that the photos must show a bit of the real environment and behavior of the animals and plants; and second, I don't have (or didn't have) the knowledge for raise them at home. But now I am discovering that it is not so difficult, so look forward for further news on it.

PS - I'll try to stay awake a couple more hours, next time...

EarlyStages 11 years ago

Great going, Sérgio! Confirming the identity of immature Neotropical butterflies by rearing them to adulthood is of immense scientific value. Thus, based upon everything you can remember (location, habitat, hostplant, etc.), what's the likely percentage that . . .

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/916...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/106...

. . . are in fact this species, Callicore pygas? Muito obrigado!

BTW, generally speaking, the hours immediately before and after sunrise are prime eclosion time.