|
|
|
Glasswinged butterfly
 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note [Portuguese] |
Kingdom: Animalia
Division: Rhopalocera
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Greta
Species: Greta oto
Greta oto is a brush-footed butterfly, and is a member of the clearwing clade; its wings are transparent. Its most common English name is glasswing, and its Spanish name is espejitos, which means "little mirrors." Indeed, the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. It is one of the more abundant clearwing species in its home range, which extends throughout Central America into Mexico. The opaque borders of its wings are dark brown sometimes tinted with red or orange, and its body is dark in color. Its wingspan is between 5.5 and 6 cm.
Adults inhabit the rainforest understory and feed on the nectar of a variety of tropical flowers. G. oto prefers to lay its eggs on plants of the tropical nightshade genus Cestrum. The silvery-gray caterpillars feed on these toxic plants and store the alkaloids in their tissues, making them distasteful to predators such as birds. They retain their toxicity in adulthood. The same alkaloids that make them poisonous also are converted into pheromones by the males, which use them to attract females.
G. oto adults also exhibit a number of interesting behaviors, such as long migrations and lekking among males. |
Only registered TrekNature members may rate photo notes. |
|
|
| Discussions |
| None | | You must be logged in to start a discussion. |
|
Hi Brutamonte,
Nice photo of a brush-footed butterfly. Good composition and DOf. I have done a workshop to help with the colour and sharpness. I hope you don't mind.
From Matt.
- nofer
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1219 W: 367 N: 805]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(2225) - [2007-06-18 10:20]
-
Linda sua Greta oto ("The Glasswing"), boa resolução e composição, aproveitei e coloquei no tema. Parabéns.
TFS
Reynaldo
![Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 14 W: 0 N: 63]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/s-n-g.gif){kind=small}
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 336 W: 32 N: 407]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-s-g.gif){kind=small}