Among the many butterflies feeding on a yellow-flowered creeper, known in Bengali as mahabhringaraj, in Chhital Para village of Dakatia union in Bhaluka, Mymensingh, Dr ANM Aminur Rahman, a specialist in bird and wildlife breeding and medicine, photographed a medium-sized brown one. Writing in Desh Rupantor, he identifies it as the lemon pansy, known in West Bengal as ushum.
He was in Bhaluka on 23 September as a consultant to Pidim Foundation, supervising a baseline survey for a poultry sub-project funded by the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation. On the way back from layer, broiler and quail farms he stopped by the creeper; along the road he saw fish farms, sugarcane and paddy fields, turmeric and banana plots and a surviving patch of deciduous forest.
The butterfly, of the family Nymphalidae, is found in Bangladesh and across South and Southeast Asia and is common and of low concern in the country. Its wingspan is 45 to 60 millimetres. The upper side is dark brown and the underside yellowish brown, and each wing carries two eye-spots like those on a peacock's tail, coloured bright lemon yellow. Males and females look alike, the females a little paler.
It is seen everywhere from forest to plain, flying fast and straight close to the ground, and is fond of nectar. Plants such as Barleria serve as its hosts; the female lays single small green, barrel-shaped eggs on the underside of leaves.
The eggs hatch in about three days, he writes. The spiny caterpillar curls into a ball when disturbed and, after five moults over 12 to 19 days, turns into a pupa. Covered in brown streaks, the pupa blends into its surroundings, and the adult emerges 6 to 15 days later. The whole life cycle takes 20 to 35 days.
Wherever he has seen the creeper, in the hills, on the plains or at Dhaka airport, he writes, it has been crowded with butterflies feeding on its flowers.
Source: Desh Rupantor
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