Cardinal, Pandora

Description:

Big butterflies, 5.5-7 cm wingspan, females half a centimeter bigger than males. Upper side of the wings is olive greenish with many black spots and lines. The underside is golden green and cadmium red with black spots. The anverse of the male forewings is olive green with pale yellow and orange at the tip and black veins. It presents two androconian veins in V2 and V3. The caterpillars, with sizes up to 35 mm, are beige, hairy with a black stripe sprinkled with red in the upper part It flies from the end of May the late September. The female lays in August around 1400-2000 eggs in a feeding plant, usually violets, or in the neighbourhood for fifteen days. Before winter the larvae hatch and go into hibernation until spring. The chrysalis form in late spring and the adults emerge at the beginning of summer.

Habitat:

Pine tree forest at 1300 meters high. Sierra de Guadarrama

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/500 sec., f/11, ISO Speed Rating: 400. Focal Length: 300.0 mm.