Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Great Orange Tip Butterfly

The Great Orange Tip Butterfly, Hebomoia glaucippe, is in the Pieridae family, and is native to Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia.  It's life span is only a bit over three months during which time it lives on the juices of rotten fruit.  Interestingly enough, it also has a toxin in its wing tips called glacontryphan-M, a peptide toxin also found in the stinger of Conus marmoreus, the marbled cone (found in tropical waters throughout the Indo-Pacific), which uses the toxin to prey on other cone shells.  In the butterfly, it is likely defensive.

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