Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore) lives in tropical forests across Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia. It feeds on passion flower leaves.
Fascinating facts about the Tawny Coster
- When a predator attacks, the tawny coster collapses and plays dead while a yellowish, noxious fluid is released from glands at the leg joints, making it unpalatable. This chemical defence is backed by a tough exoskeleton that lets the butterfly survive a few pecks from a bird or bites from a lizard. After the threat passes, it quickly takes off and resumes its weak, unsteady flight.
- The tawny coster females possess a sphragis, a copulatory plug formed after mating. Males first transfer a spermatophore and then secrete a waxy substance that spills from the female's genital opening, hardening within a few hours. This hardened plug blocks further matings for a short period, ensuring the male's sperm has priority.
- In India, only the tawny coster and the yellow coster represent the predominantly African tribe Acraeini. The tribe Acraeini is otherwise found mainly in Africa.
- The tawny coster stays low, never rising above three metres and usually perches about a metre off the ground on vegetation. Its weak fluttery flight keeps it close to the surface as it moves through its grassland and scrub habitats. The butterfly deliberately avoids dense undergrowth and shady spots, preferring open spaces in all types of vegetation. This habit means it is most often seen fluttering just above low foliage where it can quickly take off if disturbed.
- The tawny coster's distribution now spans South and Southeast Asia, reaching from India and Sri Lanka through Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore, with Australia recorded as the newest country in its range. It inhabits grassland and scrub habitats across this broad area, wherever its larval food plants grow. The recent appearance in Australia marks a notable extension of its known range.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeSub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia
HabitatTropical forests
DietPassion flower leaves
About the Tawny Coster
As the Tawny Coster dances through the warm, sun-drenched grasslands, its delicate wings beat in a hypnotic rhythm, casting a mesmerizing spell over the landscape. With each gentle flutter, the butterfly's tawny-orange wings glimmer like burnished copper, as if infused with the very essence of the golden light that surrounds it. As it alights upon a tender shoot, its proboscis uncoils with languid elegance, sipping nectar with an air of quiet contentment, its beauty a testament to the understated wonders of the natural world.
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