Page 268 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Nymphalidae
DISTRIBUTION Areas of sub-Saharan Africa, and southern and Southeast Asia
to northern Australia
HABITAT Tropical, riparian, monsoon forests from sea level to above
4,920 ft (1,500 m) elevation
HOST PLANTS Flacourtia spp. and species from Acanthaceae, Compositae,
Primulaceae, Salicaceae, Rubiaceae, and Violaceae
NOTE Most common and widespread caterpillar of its genus
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but locally common and widely distributed

ADULT WINGSPAN
1 ⁄ –2⅛ in (46–55 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
1 in (25 mm)
PHALANTA PHALANTHA
COMMON LEOPARD
266
(DRURY, [1773])

The Common Leopard caterpillar, also known as the Spotted
Rustic, feeds openly on the foliage of its food plant, where it is
very active and develops fast, taking about seven days to mature.
The larvae are most abundant during the late dry season and at
the end of the wet season following new growth of the plants on
which they feed. When the caterpillar stops feeding, it wanders
to the underside of a leaf where it spins a silk pad from which it
hangs vertically to pupate. The pupa is a spectacular green with
red and silver tubercles.

Several generations of Phalanta phalantha are completed each
season. The fast- ying adult is a sun-loving species, commonly

seen ying around owering shrubs taking nectar, and at times

exhibiting puddling behavior to imbibe salts from damp ground.
The Common Leopard is the most common and widespread
member of its genus, which contains six species.

The Common Leopard caterpillar is orange
brown, changing to bright green just before
pupation, with black, branched, dorsolateral and
lateral spines. A white line joins the base of the
subspiracular, black-and-white, branched spines.
A narrow, dark band runs dorsally on the body.
The head is orange brown dorsally and black
Actual size near the mouth parts.