Moduza procris

Commander
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Tribe:	Limenitidini
Genus:	Moduza
Species:	M. procris
Binomial name
Moduza procris (Cramer, 1777)
Synonyms
Limenitis procris (Cramer, 1777)

The Commander (Moduza procris), sometimes included in the genus Limenitis), is a medium-sized, strikingly coloured brush-footed butterfly found in Asia. It is notable for the mode of concealment employed by its caterpillar and the cryptic camouflage of its pupa.

Description

At Bracebridge, Kolkata, India

The Commander has a wingspan of about 6 to 7.5 cm. The upperside of its wings are a bright reddish brown. Towards the centre of the wing are broad white spots. In flight, one can see a bright red brown butterfly with a white band forming a 'V shape'. There are also a few white spots scattered on the wings. Its hindwings have crenulated margins. The undersides of the wings are a whitish gray toward the base and have a row of dull reddish brown and a row of black spots along the margins.

The male and female are similar in appearance.

Range

Sri Lanka, Peninsular India, the Himalayas east of the Dun valley, through Kumaon, Nepal, Sikkim to Assam, Arunachal and onto Myanmar. Locally abundant, it is common from Sri Lanka to Maharashtra. It is rare in Gujarat and far more common in the Himalayas.

Ecology

Upperside pattern

The beautiful underside markings

The Commander is generally found in forested regions having moderate to heavy rainfall. It usually keeps to low elevations, that is, up to 3000 feet into the hills.

It is fond of open glades, roadsides and clearings in forests. It is abundant along water courses in dry and moist deciduous forests. It is also found close to villages or wherever it's larval host-plant Mussaenda frondosa is to be found. It is most common in the post-monsoon months and winter.

The Commander can often be spotted basking with its wings pressed flat on exposed stones in streambeds. Individuals settle down on an exposed perch high up in the trees during the heat of the day. At this time it can be seen defending its territory and driving intruding butterflies away.

This butterfly has a swift flight with rapid wingbeats and alternate spurts of smooth gliding. A powerful flier, it nevertheless flies for short distances at a time. Being wary, it maintains its distance and is best caught when engrossed in mud-puddling or feeding from flowers. It regularly visits flowers from low-lying herbs to high up in the trees. Though this is a mud-puddling species, in Borneo and probably elsewhere, adults do not visit carrion or old fruit to drink liquids.^[1]

Host plants

Most of the larval host plants belong to the family Rubiaceae.

• Neolamarckia cadamba (Kadam)
• Mussaenda frondosa
• Wendlandia thyrsoidea
• Wendlandia exserta
• Cinchona spp. (Quinine trees)
• Cadaba fruitcosa
• Mitragyna parviflora
• Hedyotis orixense
• Ochreinauclea missionis

Life cycle

• 

  Egg

• 

  Caterpillar

• 

  Chrysalis, ventral

• 

  Chrysalis, dorsal

Pupa in natural pose

Egg

The female Commander lays a single egg on the underside of the tip of a leaf of the food plant. The egg is hairy and greenish and looks like a green strawberry. The egg hatches in 3 to 4 days.

Frass chain of the Commander caterpillar, used for defence

Caterpillar

The caterpillar is dirty brown with a chestnut tinge and dark brown splotches all over. The body also bears numerous processes which help to break up its outline. The behaviour of this caterpillar is very interesting in that it is one of the species of butterfly that makes long chains of frass. It eats up part of the leaf it is on and uses bits of leaves which are strung up with silk along with droppings. The caterpillar rests on the exposed mid rib of a leaf after removing the leafy portions on the sides. This behaviour may be to dissuade ants from crossing over the chain of frass behind which the caterpillar rests.

Pupa

Before pupating, the caterpillar wanders around, often far away from the plant it fed on. It pupates among dried leaves and twigs. The pupa is brownish in color and rough in texture. It is angular with prominent wing expansions and bears flat processes on the head which curl together making a hole between them. It also has numerous lines and markings that make it look like a rolled up dried leaf.

Gallery

• 

  In Kolkata, West Bengal, India

• 

  In Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Footnotes

1. ^ Hamer et al. (2006)

References

• Evans, W.H. (1932): The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed). Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.
• Gaonkar, Harish (1996): Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore, India & Natural History Museum, London, UK.
• Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac & Punetha, J.C. (1992): Common Butterflies of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
• Hamer, K.C.; Hill, J.K.; Benedick, S.; Mustaffa, N.; Chey, V.K. & Maryati, M. (2006): Diversity and ecology of carrion- and fruit-feeding butterflies in Bornean rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22: 25–33. doi:10.1017/S0266467405002750 (HTML abstract)
• Kunte, Krushnamegh (2000): Butterflies of Peninsular India (2006 reprint). University Press, India.
• Robinson, Gaden, S.; Ackery, Phillip R.; Kitching, Ian J.; Beccaloni, George W. & Hernández, Luis M. (2007): HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Accessed July 2007.
• Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957): Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

External links

• ASEAN biodiversity database