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Monarch [Striped Tiger]


Monarch [Striped Tiger]
Photo Information
Copyright: Atanu Chanda (atanuchanda) Silver Note Writer [C: 3 W: 0 N: 39] (152)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2009-01-18
Categories: Insects
Camera: Kodak DX6490
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2009-01-21 0:45
Viewed: 658
Points: 2
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Striped Tiger (Danaus genutia), known as Monarch Butterfly all over the world, is seen in the areas of heavy rainfall in India. It lives in forest areas and scrub jungles up to an altitude of 2700 m. This migratory species is also called common tiger.

It eats milkweeds such as blood flower, Madagascar jasmine and ceropegia. Striped Tiger is fond of flowers of lantana, fiddle-leavedjatropha, feathercocks'comb, radish, Indian chestnut, soap-nut tree, Chinese sunac and cadillo.

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.

Description
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 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).

It has some 16 subspecies; its evolutionary relationships are not completely resolved, but it appears to be closest to the Malay Tiger (D. affinis) and White Tiger,

Distribution and ecology
D. genutia is distributed throughout India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and extending to South East Asia and Australia (except New Guinea)[1]. At least in the South Asian part of its range it is fairly common, locally very common.

This butterfly occurs in scrub jungles, fallowland adjacent to habitation, dry and moist deciduous forests, preferring areas of moderate to heavy rainfall. Also occurs in degraded hill slopes and ridges, both, bare or denuded, and, those covered with secondary growth.

While it is a strong flier, it never flies rapidly or high. It has stronger and faster strokes than the Plain Tiger. The butterfly ranges forth in search of its host and nectar plants. It visits gardens where it nectars on the flowers of Adelocaryum, Cosmos, Celosia, Lantana, Zinnia and similar flowers.

Courtesy - Wikipedia
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Critiques [Translate]

Hallo Atanu
It seems that your outing to the Dr. Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary, was really fruitful and worthwhile if I look at all the beautiful butterflies you have photographed including this one. The warm and rich colours on the wings of the butterfly are beautiful and pleasant to look at. I would however crop out some of the flowers, making the butterfly display on a larger scale. That is on the other hand my own opinion, and I still enjoyed looking at your image.
Best regards
Anna

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