Danaus genutia or the Striped Tiger butterfly in India

  • 2 years ago
Danaus genutia -- Striped Tiger Male, Troides aeacus -- Golden Birdwing Female butterfly on a Zinnia flower.

The Common Tiger (Danaus genutia) is one of the common butterflies of India. It belongs to the "Crows and Tigers", that is, the danainae group of the Brush-footed butterflies family. The butterfly is also called Striped Tiger in India to differentiate it from the equally common Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus.

The butterfly closely resembles the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of the Americas. The wingspan is 75 to 95 mm. Both sexes of the butterfly have tawny wings with veins marked with broad black bands. The female[verification needed] has a pouch on the hindwing. The margins of the wings are black with two rows of white spots. The underside of the wings resembles the upperside but is paler in colouration. The male Common Tiger has a prominent black-and-white spot on the underside of the hindwing. In drier regions the tawny part of the hindwing pales and approaches white in colour making it very similar to the White Tiger (D. melanippus).

Source - Wikipedia

This identification has been done by Hemant Ogale.

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea).

All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths. The earliest known butterfly fossils date to the mid Eocene epoch, between 40-50 million years ago. Butterflies exhibit polymorphism, mimicry and aposematism. Some, like the Monarch, will migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants. Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; however, some species are agents of pollination of some plants, and caterpillars of a few butterflies (e.g., Harvesters) eat harmful insects. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

Source - Wikipedia

This footage is part of the professionally-shot stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and Digital Betacam. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.