According to many, Madagascar uranium is the most beautiful butterfly in the world. It lives only on the island of Madagascar and is active only during the day. Its caterpillars can feed on only one species of plant. For a long time, her whereabouts were unknown.
Discovery story
The story of the discovery of the butterfly of the uranium of Madagascar is very unusual. Once an English captain named May from Hammersmith brought a dried copy of an unknown butterfly of incredible beauty from China. And in 1773, this butterfly was described by an English entomological scientist named Drew Drury.
Mr. Drury assigned this species to the genus Papilio and named it Papilio rhipheus. The Chinese origin of the species was not further confirmed. For a long time, the habitat of this butterfly was unknown, however, later scientists established that the described species was endemic to the island of Madagascar and was not found anywhere else.
In 1823, Madagascar Urania (photo below) was reassigned to the genus Chrysiridia croesus by the scientist Jacob Hübner, which had the shape and color of wings similar to the butterfly described.
Two more of the subfamilies of Urania are closely related to this genus: Urania and Aclides. As the similarity of these three species, the same transition of caterpillars from feeding plants from the Endospermum genus to the Omphalea genus is distinguished.
Butterfly Description
Madagascar Urania delights with its brightness, unusual color scheme and intricate pattern of its wings. It is interesting that this species differs in color of a mixed type, that is, the color is formed both due to pigments and due to interference of light.
The main background color of the wings of the Madagascar uranium is black, on which multi-colored strokes of blue, red, green and yellow shades are scattered in a chaotic and asymmetric order.
The asymmetry of the color of the wings is formed due to the influence of high temperatures, when the butterfly is still in the pupal stage. This fact is proved by experiments. Scientists placed pupae in refrigerators. Madagascar uranium butterflies (photos are presented in the article), hatched from them, were painted completely differently.
The wingspan is on average from 70 to 90 mm, but can reach 110 mm in large individuals. Differences by gender are poorly developed. Females are noticeably larger than males. The body of the butterfly is thin, flattened from the sides. The chest below is covered with orange hairs. The eyes of the insect are large, round and bare. Proboscis naked, with well-developed labial palps. Flagellate antennae thickened towards middle. On the second segment of the abdomen is the tympanum.
Track Description
The caterpillar of the uranium of Madagascar has a yellowish-white color with black spots and red legs. The front end of her body is painted black, on it is a brown head with black spots.
Immediately after hatching, young caterpillars feed only on inter-vein tissue of the leaf, avoiding toxic juice. Four days later, they begin to eat fruits, flowers, petioles and young stalks of omphalia. Moving, the caterpillar secrets silk threads, allowing climb back when falling.
During its development, Madagascar butterfly caterpillars cover four stages of maturation, which occur in two months of the dry season and a couple of weeks of the rainy season.
Fodder plants
Caterpillars of the described butterfly are able to feed on only four species of plants from the family Euphorbiaceae or Euphorbiaceae. Thickets of these plants are not found throughout Madagascar, and therefore caterpillars are found in parts of the island that are separated from each other.
Interestingly, the plant of the genus Omphalia, which caterpillars feed on, contains in its leaves a juice that attracts many other insects. Among them are predatory wasps, but they can only threaten larvae that are at the very early stages of development. But the ants, which are very actively protecting omphalia from other insects, for some reason do not touch the uranium caterpillars.
Madagascar uranium butterfly feeds on the nectar of tea, eucalyptus, mango, etc., and is distributed throughout the island.
All plants on which uranium butterflies feed, have white or yellowish-white color of flowers, which indicates the importance of the role of vision in the life of winged insects.
Breeding
The female Madagascar uranium lays eggs in groups of 60-110 pieces on the lower, and occasionally on the upper side of the omphaly leaf. The eggs have a dome shape with protruding ribs, of which there are 16, 17, 18 pieces.
Larvae prepare cocoons from silk threads for 10 hours. Then it takes about 30 hours to prepare the track for conversion. The process of metamorphosis itself can take no more than 10 minutes, but the butterfly appears from the cocoon only after 17-23 days.
The natives of the island - the Malagasy - nicknamed Madagascar uranium with a royal spirit or a noble butterfly. They believe that the souls of dead people transform into butterflies, therefore, harming this beautiful insect, an evil person harms his ancestors. I wish every person on the planet began to relate to all living things as the Malagasy people relate to their butterflies!