20 May 2014

Butterflies Galore! : Cruiser

Butterflies Galore!
The Cruiser (Vindula dejone erotella)



This medium sized butterfly is regularly seen in the forests in Singapore. With a wingspan of about 70-80 mm, the brightly-coloured orange male is very noticeable when it flutters amongst the shrubbery and along forest paths. Males are a rich fulvous orange above, with a paler discal band. The underside is similarly coloured, but paler, with a distinct brown post-discal stripe across both wings.

The species exhibits sexual dimorphism, where the female is pale-greenish grey with a prominent post-discal white band across both wings. The ocelli on the female's wings are larger and orange-ringed. Both sexes have a short pointed tail at vein 4 of the hindwing. The male is often encountered puddling at sandy streambanks in the forested nature reserves as is shown here. More photos of the Cruiser can be found here.

4 comments:

merlin said...

"...wingspan of about 70-80 cm..."

Wow! ;-))

Commander said...

Wow... there's some dude out there who's actually reading! :D

merlin said...

Sure, I don't miss a word of your excellent blog and I'm allways looking forward for the next post.

Thank you very much for the time and passion you spend for us. Cheers!

Commander said...

Thank you for the encouragement! Glad that you enjoy the blog posts! Makes it all worth it! :-)