Butterflies of Bangladesh: Geographical Expedition and Camouflage

Department of Biology, Cantonment Public College, Saidpur Cantonment―5311, Nilphamari, Bangladesh

*Corresponding author: Ashraful Kabir, Department of Biology, Cantonment Public College, Saidpur Cantonment―5311, Nilphamari, Bangladesh, Phone: +88-01712563750; E-mail: [email protected]

Received Date: November 16, 2024

Published Date: December 27, 2024

Citation: Kabir A. (2024). Butterflies of Bangladesh: Geographical Expedition and Camouflage. Mathews J Vet Sci. 8(5):56.

Copyrights: Kabir A. © (2024).

ABSTRACT

To protect butterflies, knowledge at the field level on various larvae and pupae of butterflies are mandatory. Based on the coloration of both larval and pupal stages, this paper could be act as a guideline to the taxonomy of butterflies. Such observations in nature as well as in the laboratory specimens are helpful to accumulate knowledge completing this write-up. Accordingly, out of 23 species of butterflies in Bangladesh, the highest members were found in the family Nymphalidae (12 species) and Papilionidae (5 species) (Table 1; Figure 1). Observed larvae exhibited varied coloration such as red, brown, green, yellow, and white gradually (Table 1). The long-term keen observation on larvae could identify such adult butterflies of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Butterfly, occurrence, metamorphosis, camouflage, sexual selection, Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION

Color can be involved in thermoregulation, crypsis, aposematism, and sexual selection. This is a striking phenotypic trait with clear adaptive significance, and its role may change dramatically through life [1-4]. For example, in many animals with complete metamorphoses such as butterflies, crabs, or frogs, sexual dichromatism develops with the transition to adulthood, when males experience strong sexual selection [5-8]. Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) and their caterpillars are among the most colorful animals in the world. Butterflies are an important group of model organisms to investigate many areas like pest control, embryology, mimicry, evolution, genetics, population dynamics, and biodiversity conservation [9]. Ancient people were astonished to observe the larvae of butterflies and their metamorphosis from larva to adult. Until direct association with this phenomenon those were not possible to believe. Moreover, these larvae were hidden and mostly used to come out at night for feed; for this reason, people could not understand this phenomenon. Besides, the pupa was another camouflage stage with those life-saving threatening markings. Bristles of the larvae and bright color pigments came about for protection from predators. Occasionally, the body and wing color pigments of the adults can be understandable on the puparium. Various larvae of different species were seen with a more or less similar appearance and not easily recognizable to their adults afterward. Besides, some larvae of moths look-like the larvae of butterflies. Scientists have carried out various pigments of adult butterflies which are comparable by the larval coloration.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Common butterflies of Bangladesh

Table 1. Larval pigmentation of some butterflies with their taxonomic status

Figure 1. Families with observed species.

Protective coloration and sexual selection

The most common color strategies in caterpillars were green and black (Table 1) and the family Nymphalidae was found more among other families of butterflies (Figure 1). The high contrast of these signals is suggested to have an important role in predator avoidance [10]. The high-contrast coloration is correlated with the body size in caterpillars but not adults [11]. Predation and sexual selection are likely to be the main drivers of wing color in adults, while in larval stages the main selective pressure is probably predation [12,13]. Wing color is an important trait involved in sexual selection in many butterflies, while the color of the underside of the wing is more likely to be driven by predation pressures [13]. Blue iridescent colors in adult butterflies are important sexual signals [14]. The likelihood of an attack is much higher due to the slow movement of larval stages [1,2]. Caterpillars are liked to be camouflaged on stems, while adults are more likely to be camouflaged on the trunks of trees or leaves [15]. For instance, caterpillar color saturation is significantly associated with adult coloration [16] and diet can significantly affect adult toxicity [17]. Adults of various species use color in courtship [6,13], thermoregulation, and anti-predatory strategies [5,12,18,19]. The use of warning signals is very common in both caterpillars and adult butterflies [15,20,21] but much less common in pupae [15,22].

CONCLUSION

We should be committed to elaborate our knowledge on the proper identification of the larvae and adults of various butterflies. Most studies of butterflies of Bangladesh focused on distribution, abundance, adult coloration, and new species identification. The breeding biology of particular species and pigmentation in the larval and adult stages of butterflies could be consequential topics at the present context. To study the larvae of various butterflies, their foodplants could be an interesting issue [23].

REFERENCES

1. Booth CL. (1990). Evolutionary significance of ontogenetic colour change in animals. Biol J Linn. Soc. 40(2):125-163.
2. Caro T, Sherratt TN, Stevens M. (2016). The ecology of multiple colour defences. Evol Ecol. 30(5):797-809.
3. Cortesi F, Musilova Z, Stieb SM, Hart NS, Siebeck UE, Cheney KL, et al. (2016). From crypsis to mimicry: changes in colour and the configuration of the visual system during ontogenetic habitat transitions in a coral reef fish. J Exp Biol. 219(Pt 16):2545-2558.
4. Salis P, Roux N, Soulat O, Lecchini D, Laudet V, Frédérich B. (2018). Ontogenetic and phylogenetic simplification during white stripe evolution in clownfishes. BMC Biol. 16(1):90.
5. Ellers J, Boggs CL. (2003). The evolution of wing color: male mate choice opposes adaptive wing color divergence in Colias butterflies. Evolution. 57(5):1100-1106.
6. Kronforst MR, Young LG, Kapan DD, McNeely C, O'Neill RJ, Gilbert LE. (2006). Linkage of butterfly mate preference and wing color preference cue at the genomic location of wingless. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 103(17):6575-6580.
7. Detto T, Backwell PR. (2009). The fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi uses ultraviolet cues in mate choice but not aggressive interactions. Anim Behav. 78(2):407-411.
8. Bell RC, Zamudio KR. (2012). Sexual dichromatism in frogs: natural selection, sexual selection and unexpected diversity. Proc Biol Sci. 279(1748):4687-4693.
9. Afrin S, Sharmin S, Sharmin S. (2015). Conservation of butterflies in Bangladesh. AJASE. 4(10):7-16.
10. Cibulkova A, Vesely P, Fuchs R. (2014). Importance of conspicuous colours in warning signals: the great tit’s (Parus major) point of view. Evol Ecol. 28(3):427-439.
11. Medina I, Vega-Trejo R, Wallenius T, Symonds MRE, Stuart-Fox D. (2019). From cryptic to colorful: evolutionary decoupling of larval and adult color in butterflies. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). 4(1):34-43.
12. Heinrich B. (1993). How avian predators constrain caterpillar foraging. In: Stamp NE, Casey TM, eds. Caterpillars: ecological and evolutionary constraints of foraging. Chapman and Hall, New York, USA. pp. 224-247.
13. Oliver JC, Robertson KA, Monteiro A. (2009). Accommodating natural and sexual selection in butterfly wing pattern evolution. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B: Biol Sci. 276(1666):2369-2376.
14. Rutowski RL, Macedonia JM, Morehouse N, Taylor-Taft L. (2005). Pterin pigments amplify iridescent ultraviolet signal in males of the orange sulphur butterfly, Colias eurytheme. Proc Biol Sci. 272(1578):2329-2335.
15. Gaitonde N, Joshi J, Kunte K. (2018). Evolution of ontogenic change in color defenses of swallowtail butterflies. Ecol Evol. 8(19):9751-9763.
16. Lindstedt C, Schroderus E, Lindström L, Mappes T, Mappes J. (2016). Evolutionary constraints of warning signals: A genetic trade-off between the efficacy of larval and adult warning coloration can maintain variation in signal expression. Evolution. 70(11):2562-2572.
17. Burdfield-Steel EM, Brain B, Rojas Mappes J. (2018). The price of safety: food deprivation in early life influences the efficacy of chemical defence in an aposematic moth. Oikos. 128(2):245-253.
18. Fields PG, McNeil JN. (1988). The importance of seasonal variation in hair coloration for thermoregulation of Ctenucha virginica larvae (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Physiol. Entomol. 13(2):165-175.
19. Bowers MD. (1993). Aposematic caterpillars: life-cycle of the warningly coloured and unpalatable. In: Stamp NE, Casey TM, eds. Caterpillars: ecological and evolutionary constraints on foraging. Chapman and Hall, New York, USA. pp.331-371.
20. Nishida R. (2002). Sequestration of defensive substances from plants by Lepidoptera. Annu Rev Entomol. 47:57-92.
21. Greeney H, Dyer L, Smilanich A. (2012). Feeding by lepidopteran larvae is dangerous: a review of caterpillars’ chemical, physiological, morphological, and behavioral defenses against natural enemies. Invertebrate Surviv J. 9:7-34.
22. Wiklund C, Sillen-Tullberg B. (1985). Why distasteful butterflies have aposematic larvae and adults, but cryptic pupae: evidence from predation experiments on the monarch and the European swallowtail. Evolution. 39(5):1155-1158.
23. Clarke HE. (2024). A checklist of European butterfly larval foodplants. Ecology and Evolution. 14(1): e10834.