Delhi’s common urban butterfly

Boring through leaves in many a garden when it’s still a caterpillar, the Red Pierrot or the Talicada nyseus is a common sight in the capital city

Red Pierrot on Jatropha

The Red Pierrot is a small but striking butterfly found in the Indian subcontinent. Apart from jungles, they are found in various types of habitats, including urban settlements. The Red Pierrot is often fluttering in our backyards on flowers of plants like the Periwinkle or the Sadabahar ( Caranthus roseus ) as it’s known in Hindi, or on the Jatropha, as these butterflies prefer open petal flowers.

The upperside of their wings are black except for a large orange portion on the lower edge of the hindwing. On the underside, the wings are a colourful mix of white, black and orange, with strikingly beautiful markings. They usually perch with their wings closed to display the bright markings on the underside.

The Red Pierrot is a weak flyer. It flies in short bursts and flutters close to the ground. They usually bask with half-open wings and prefer shade to the sun.

They fly during most parts of the day, and settle on the undersides of leaves and twigs at night .

Butterflies almost always lay eggs on the underside of leaves. This is to protect them from predators. The plants that they lay their eggs on are called host plants. In the case of the Red Pierrot, the larval host plants that we usually come across are Kalonchoe laciniata (family of succulents) and Pattarchatta ( Bryophyllum pinnatum ).

Two Red Pierrots mating on a Sadabahar

The caterpillar of this species is a leaf miner by habit. As soon as it hatches, it bores into the leaf and will spend the rest of its life as a caterpillar between the layers of these leaves. This serves as a defence mechanism, protecting it from other predators. It does occasionally go to another leaf, once it is finished eating one. When it moves inside the leaf, it leaves a black trail at the back which is a trail of droppings. The caterpillar also turns into a pupa on this plant before finally emerging as a butterfly.

Butterflies are the second most important pollinators in the world (after bees) and are indicators of a healthy ecosystem. They are cold-blooded animals that cannot regulate their body temperature, and hence depend on external source (sun) for heat and energy.

Extensive use of chemical insecticides and pesticides is leading to a decrease in their populations. Use of organic means is vital in protection of these insects that help us sustain globally.

The writer is the founder of the NINOX - Owl about Nature, a nature awareness initiative . He formerly led a programme at WWF-India as a naturalist and is the Delhi-NCR reviewer for Ebird, a Cornell University initiative, monitoring rare sightings of birds in the region