Beside the watchtower at Katka in the Sundarbans, known as the "tiger's home", Dr A N M Aminur Rahman, a specialist in bird and wildlife breeding and veterinary care, photographed a crimson-and-black butterfly on a wildflower. Writing in Samakal, he identifies it as the crimson rose, a rare and endangered butterfly in Bangladesh.
He saw it at about 8:15am on 28 September 2025 among the flowers of jujube and other wild plants by the tower. He had seen it at Katka several times before, first in January 2013, and saw it again on 16 October this year in the Lembur Bon forest on Kuakata beach. On the same trip he photographed rare birds such as the brown wood owl and mangrove whistler at Sheikher Tek in the Khulna range.
Its Bengali name, Sinduri Padmarag, was given by Dr Bashar, a former Dhaka University professor; in West Bengal it is called Alsindura. A member of the swallowtail family Papilionidae, its scientific name is Pachliopta hector. Besides Bangladesh it occurs in South and Southeast Asia and Australia.
How to recognise it: a wingspan of 90 to 110 mm and a bright red body. The forewings carry distinct white bands, and the glossy blue-black hindwings have bright red spots and long tails. Males and females look alike, though the female's body is paler and her red markings larger.
It is found in Khulna, Sylhet, Chattogram and Dhaka divisions, in forest and open country, loves nectar, flies all year and is strongly migratory. The female lays one reddish egg per leaf on host plants such as Aristolochia (pipevine) species.
Eggs hatch in 6 to 10 days; the dark brown caterpillar moults five times and pupates after three to four weeks, and the adult emerges 10 to 20 days later, living only 6 to 14 days. The whole cycle from egg to adult takes 39 to 47 days.
Photo: a crimson rose butterfly, Dr. Raju Kasambe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: samakal
Comments
(0)