Page 109 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Hesperiidae
DISTRIBUTION The Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
HABITAT Humid, mid-elevation cloud forests, forest edges,
and regenerating forests
HOST PLANTS Vismia spp.
NOTE Caterpillar with white hairs often stained orange by Vismia sap
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but not likely to be endangered

ADULT WINGSPAN
2–2³∕₁₆ in (50–56 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
PYRRHOPYGE PAPIUS 1⅞–2⅛ in (48–54 mm)
SHOULDER-STREAKED
FIRETIP 107

HOPFFER, 1874

The strikingly banded caterpillar of the Shoulder-streaked
Firetip hides away inside a cleverly crafted leaf shelter while
not feeding. Small caterpillars carefully excise a manhole-shaped
circle from the center of a leaf, then feed on the isolated tissue
of this flap, which enables them to avoid gumming up their
mandibles with the thick, bright orange latex of their host plant.
After hatching, the rather slow-growing caterpillars may take as
long as 110 days before they pupate, their rate of growth likely
curbed by the compounds they ingest from their chemically
defended host plant.

There are around 40 species of fat-bodied, small-winged adult

fi retips—Pyrrhopyge species—all extremely fast fliers and most
frequently seen dashing about with an audible buzzing of their
wings. They descend to the ground to feed at feces, rotting fruit,
and urine-enriched soils, only rarely visiting flowers. For those

species with described caterpillars, all are known to build larval
shelters and have the ability to forcibly expel their frass away
from their homes.

The Shoulder-streaked Firetip caterpillar
is dark maroon to deep red in ground color
with thin, but bright orange, yellow-orange,
or yellow, intersegmental stripes on the
abdomen. It is covered in long, silky hairs,
especially on the thorax and head, these
hairs being bright white apically and crimson
basally. The caterpillar’s heavily armored
Actual size head bears strong vertical ridges.