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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note [French] |
Butterfly
Photograph taken in plantations near the town of Benin City, close to the Ologbo protected area.
Danaus chrysippusLinnaeus, 1758
English:Plain tiger, Tigger Common, Lesser Wanderer, African Queen
German:Kleine Monarch, Monarch Afrikanisher, Gewφnlischer Tiger
French:Small Monarch
Classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Subkingdom:Metazoa
Phylum:Arthropoda
Subphylum:Hexapoda
Class:Insecta
Sub-Class:Pterygota
Infra-Class:Neoptera
Super-Order:endopterygotes
Order:Lepidoptera
Suborder:Macrolepidoptera
Superfamily:Papilionoidea
Family:Nymphalidae
Subfamily:Danainae
Genre:Danaus
Species:Danaus chrysippus Linnaeus, 1758
Protection Status
Taxon unprotected and not listed in the IUCN Red List.
Origin and distribution
Butterfly very ubiquitous, Europe, Africa, Sri Lanka, India, China, Sulawesi.
Ecology:
Danaus chrysippus is a butterfly that can live in many biotope, from desert, to the height mountains, up to more than 1500 m), passing through tropical rainforest areas (in open habitats).
Behavior
Danaus chrysippus, like most butterflies lives with his wings closed in general.
During its migrations, when it arises near the ground or on plant material, it opens its wings and turns them toward the sun. Thus they are fully exposed to sunlight.
Danaus chrysippus is protected from attacks by the association of its colors, the speed of its flight (slow, giving every opportunity to its predators to recognize him) and the presence in its body of emetic alkaloids. Predators "understand" that the butterfly should not be ingested, they pass their way.
Another defense is to mimic a state of death and issue a smelly secretion. Perceiving these odors, predators spend their way. It seems then, for the novice, as Danaus chrysippus is capable of a "miraculous" resurrection after a predator attack.
Description:
It is a medium sized butterfly (seven to eight centimeters). Its body is rather dark, ornate white punctuation.
The wings are colored orange, more or less dark. The apex of the forewing is brown to black, ornamented with large white dots, sometimes coalescing into a white band crossed by the ribs. The posterior edge of the wings is also dark and provided with semi-circular white dots. The hind wings are ornamented by three black dots in the center.
The hind wings of the male carry on rib number 2 a black punctuation bordered white. It is a gland emitting a pheromone attractive to females.
Males specimen are smaller, but more brightly colored than females.
Mimicry
Given its defensive behavior, evolution has led to other species of butterflies that look very similar to Danaus chrysippus: adopting a same dress, the mimes are able to escape predators, who confuse them withDanaus chrysippus.
Economic Importance
Except for pollinating activities, the butterfly does not have much economic impact.
Sources:
1._ Larsen - Butterflies of West Africa - Apollo Books, 1997
2._ Tom Tolman and Richard Lewington - Guide to the Butterflies of Europe and North Africa
Sites
Acres in Wikipedia
Acres in Wikipedia
Lepidoptera of Europe
Photo gallery insect
Danaus chrysippus in Arkive.org
Danaus chrysippus In Encyclopedia of Life
The photograph
Clichι pleine taille dans Picassa web
Seconde vue du clichι dans Picassa web
In the workshop, another view of the same; thank you for your opinion.
camera:
Camera: Canon PowerShot G12
Objective: 30 mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Speed: 1/160
Shooting: Automatic
Measures: Central
Conditions: Sunny, with undergrowth.
Time: 8:57 a.m.
Sensitivity: ISO-80
Terms shooting
Sunny, with good illumination, aperture f/4.5 for speed 1 / 500.
shooting:
Original Size: 3648 x 2736 px
Format: Jpeg
Resolution: 180 dpi x 180 dpi
Color: sRGB
Finished format: 791 x 600 jpg
Crop: 30%
Image processing: Olympus Studio and Corel Photo Paint ; Trim, edit gamma, saturation and sharpness
Elimination of noise: NeatImage |
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