Common Tiger Butterfly

Fascinating facts about the Common Tiger Butterfly

• Male common tigers bear a striking black-and-white spot on the underside of the hindwing, a feature that stands out against the paler wing background. This bold marking forms part of the butterfly's overall striking colour pattern that signals its bad taste to would-be predators. When a bird or lizard grabs the insect, the unpleasant taste prompts a quick release, allowing the butterfly to recover and fly away.
• In the drier parts of its range the tawny colour of the hindwing gradually fades toward a near-white shade, making the butterfly look almost identical to the white tiger species. This colour shift occurs especially in regions with low moisture where the usual tawny pigment is less pronounced. The resulting similarity can confuse predators that rely on colour cues, while the butterfly still retains its toxic defence.
• The common tiger butterfly extracts toxic chemicals from milkweed-related host plants in the Asclepiadaceae family, storing these poisons in its tissues throughout its life. Caterpillars first consume the eggshell and then feed on the poisonous leaves, acquiring a supply of poison that makes both the larva and adult distasteful. When a predator attempts to eat the butterfly, the unpleasant taste causes it to drop the insect almost immediately.
• Both sexes of the Indian Tamil lacewing and the leopard lacewing, plus female common palmflies, copy the striped tiger's pattern. Predators avoid them as the original striped tiger is unpalatable.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Common Tiger Butterfly

As the Common Tiger Butterfly dances through the warm, sun-drenched air, its tawny wings beat with a hypnotic rhythm, like the soft thrumming of a drum, drawing the eye with an irresistible force. With each delicate flutter, the butterfly's striking orange and black stripes seem to shimmer and glow, as if infused with an inner light, as it sips nectar from flower to flower with an air of languid, unhurried elegance. In its gentle, meandering flight, the Common Tiger Butterfly embodies the very essence of tropical languor, a fleeting embodiment of beauty and wonder.

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