A global citizen science platform
to discover, share and identify wildlife
Euploea boisduvalii
I posted pics of this Caterpillars I found in Fiji to another forum for ID help. Was surprised when was told that this was a 'special' observation and he requested for more pics and full resolution pics to have a better look at them and make comparisons. He later posted his analysis/comparisons and mentioned that this is most likely Euploea boisduvalii by eliminating the other known species of Danaids recorded from there. And if he is correct, then this could be possibly be the first published photos of the caterpillar of this species! :)
Tropical forest.
Spotted on Oct 1, 2018
Submitted on Nov 13, 2018
2 Comments
Thanks, @EarlyStages for the detailed analysis.
Either one, Euploea boisduvalii or Euploea lewinii, it was still great to document this :)
FYI on the analysis . . .
According to my possibly dated references, the danaids reported for Viti Levu are:
* Danaus plexippus – LOOKS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT
* Euploea boisduvalii – MATCHES TEXTUAL DESCRIPTION
* Euploea leucostictos – LOOKS VERY DIFFERENT
* Euploea lewinii – PATTERNING SAME, BUT NOT COLOR & TUBERCLES, ON RAROTONGA (http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/spec...)
* Euploea tulliolus – 3 PAIRS OF TUBERCLES
* Tirumala hamata – 2 PAIRS OF TUBERCLES
Thus, all considered, either Euploea boisduvalii (my vote; if correct, these being the first "published" photos) or the Fijian subspecies of E. lewinii. Congratulations Albert!