Free Butterfly Calendars for your Desktop

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Hello everyone,

I have a treat for all of you that I will be starting with the help of my beautiful wife. She's designed some great desktop calendars for February. Click on whichever of the two you'd like to download.




To order your very own butterflies from the Amazon Jungles of Peru, please go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/BentheButterflyGuy

Oleria onega Glasswing Butterfly Part 3: The life cycle from egg to adult

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Well we’ve covered quite a bit in my last two entries on the Oleria onega glasswing butterfly. We know that they belong to the Oleriini tribe of the Ithomiinae family, they are neotropical, their habitat, host plant selection and a few other interesting things that make this beauty a unique specimen amongst butterflies. Today’s article will be brief but just as interesting over the life of the Oleria onega from egg to adult.

Since we’ve pretty much covered the search for the host plant we’ll get straight to the actual egg laying. When the female oviposits her eggs she uses a natural glue that is secreted with the egg to make sure the egg stays stuck onto whichever surface it is laid on. The eggs are small, white ovals. This phase lasts about three days, and the larva, once hatched is transparent. When the larvae hatch their first order of business is to eat most of the egg, leaving only the piece of the shell that is actually attached to the plant with the paste. This is a blessing in disguise for lepidopterists making it easier to spot where the larvae has hatched. Once they have finished eating most of the eggshell they gain a little color and become grey with one yellow stripe on each side.

This obviously isn't an Oleria onega
but this video should give you an idea
of what a caterpillar molting into their final instar

Like all Ithomiinae, the Oleria have five instars, and being the mean eating machines that they are, they eat all of their old skin except for the head. The onega molts every two to three days for about two weeks. When they’re ready to pupate their behavior changes all together, going from eating machines to “weather watchers”. Usually they take 12 hours after their last meals to pupate, but this all depends on optimal pupating conditions. They can hold off up to more than 24 hours for pupation based on the readings of their surroundings. The pupa is brilliant, green with metallic reflectors and they stay in this form for seven to eight days. After six days the black wings and their white spots become noticeable. Upon eclosing (hatching) they allow their wings to dry for an hour and unlike many species that are time specific upon eclosing the Oleria onega is not.

This isn't an Oleria onega, but it
is a caterpillar eating their skin. Keep in mind
Ithomiinaes leave the head portion of the leftover skin

As adults, their sole purpose is to becoming mating and egg laying machines. The males have androconial hairs that release pheromones to attract and seduce females. Males visit Eupatorium flowers to attain essential nutrients for both themselves and their mates. Something I haven’t discussed yet, but seems like a good idea for my next article is the spermatophors, or mating packages that males pass on to females when coupled. These packages contain not only the necessary “sperm” to fertilize the eggs, but also several nutrients necessary for the females survival and capability to lay eggs. For many species of female butterflies, mating isn’t only key to the survival of the species, but to the survival of the female on an individual level. I digress, once mated females will then begin their search for the S. mite and the cycle begins all over again.

Thank you for reading the concluding article to my three part series on the fascinating glasswing butterfly that is the Oleria onega.

A special thanks to learnaboutbutterflies.com for all their work and research in the name of butterfly conservation

Much of the information obtained for this article was thanks to the research of Dr. Stephanie Astrid Gallusser in her fascinating study Biology, Behaviour and Taxonomy of two Oleria onega subspecies (Ithomiinae, Nymphalidae, Lepidoptera) in north-eastern Peru

Lamas, G.; Pérez, J.E. 1981. Danainae e Ithomiinae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) atraidos por
Heliotropium (Boraginaceae) en Madre de Dios, Peru. Revista Peruana Entomologica 24: 59-62.

Oleria onega butterfly Part 2: Ovipositing, pre-alighting and post-alighting behavior

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The Oleria onega is a glasswing Ithomiinae from the Cerro Escalera mountain chain in Peru. Yesterday I explained a little bit of background information on their habitat and host plants as a crucial role in the survival of this endemic species. The fragility and how our interference in their environment changes the way they have to do things, forcing them to adapt to unnatural disturbances. Today I will share with the unique ovipositing behavior of the onega.

A monarch oviposits her eggs on their host plant

Female butterflies are great scouts, with an inherit ability to tell which of the many plants they have in any given area, are the plants that their offspring will need to survive. There are two parts to this process, pre-alighting behavior and post alighting behavior. Pre-alighting behavior is the process of searching and identifying the host plant, while post-alighting behavior is the actual landing on a plant, regardless of whether it is the correct host plant or not. When the onega is looking for a suitable Solanum mite host plant, they use a few precautionary steps to indicate the suitability of the plant and accept or reject it. They do this through visual cues and reading the chemical stats through their feet. Nymphalids like Ithomiinaes have shortened forelegs that have been converted and adapted as chemical reading instruments as a natural sensory trait. Another interesting fact is that, butterflies whose host plants are vibrant and “loud”, visually, find their host plants without every making a mistake by alighting on non-host plants.

Bars indicate the number of eggs present and absent after
two days glued on leaves or on other objects

Now this is where things get really interesting. Ithomiinaes have never been recorded as ovipositing away from their host plant until Dr. Stéphanie Astrid Gallusser’s recorded findings. She had begun recording eggs of the Oleria being oviposited on rocks, stems or other hard substances up to a meter away from the actual host plant. A series of tests revealed that predation on the eggs was less common in the eggs that were oviposited on substrates (sticks, rocks and other hard substances) than the host plant itself. One theory is that since the SW slope is more prone to deforested patches of land, the lack of shade resulted in the eggs being less hidden from predators. The leaves of the S. mite, being that it was growing in secondary vegetation where the leaves would have been the tallest parts of these deforested patches, would have made the eggs a pretty easily spotted snack. To avoid predation, the onega’s had adapted to doing something no other butterfly in the Ithomiinae family had ever done before, and that is to oviposit away from the host plant itself! Pretty fascinating stuff!!!

The next article will be the final article in the Oleria onega series, where we will discuss the timeline of the onega’s life, from egg to adult.

Ps. Thank you, whoever you are, for that most inspiring anonymous comment! I published it and then it disappeared :/

If you would like to purchase your very own glasswing butterflies click on the link, LINK

Much of the information obtained for this article was thanks to the research of Dr. Stephanie Astrid Gallusser in her fascinating study Biology, Behaviour and Taxonomy of two Oleria onega subspecies (Ithomiinae, Nymphalidae, Lepidoptera) in north-eastern Peru

Lamas, G.; Pérez, J.E. 1981. Danainae e Ithomiinae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) atraidos por
Heliotropium (Boraginaceae) en Madre de Dios, Peru. Revista Peruana Entomologica 24: 59-62.

Oleria onega Butterfly; One of the many glasswing butterflies (Part 1)

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Many people I meet in the states have never before witnessed the sheer beauty that is the glasswing butterfly and their first time getting to see one in person always brings about the same reaction “Ooooohhhh wow” or “ooooOOOOOooo my goodness” and on occasion I’ve heard “Heavens to Betsy”, whatever that means exactly, I’m not too sure. What many people may not realize is that their astonishment lies not only in heir transparent wings but in their short life, and in how changes in the habitat around them directly effect their living patterns.

All glasswing butterflies are Neotropical in region, meaning that they are found in Central and South America. The Oleria onega is from the Oleriini tribe, of the Ithomiinae family. There are nine tribes of Ithomiinae butterflies, eight of those tribes are Neotropical, one Ithomiinae tribe was discovered not too long ago in Guinea, Africa (Brown, 1987).



Oleria onega’s are found in NE Peru, on the SW slopes of the Cerro Escalera mountain range. This range of mountains is an ecological barrier between two distinct habitats, being that is the eastern most chain of Andes before the Earth forms into the Amazon valley near a village called Tarapoto. On the SW slope of the Cerro Escalera, you have more frequent patches of deforested plots of land as opposed to the NE due to the fact that it is closer to the main village. This is an important piece of information when it comes to the abundance of the Oleria onega butterflies on this slope.

The onega’s host plant is the Solanum Mite, a toxic plant from the Solanaceae family that grows on secondary vegetation. This is why the SW slope is so much more abundant with S. mites, providing for more of the vital host plant to the onega’s. This is not all good news however, less shade means less protection from predators. Studies have revealed that onegas have begun to adapt to this unnatural change in their habitat by laying their eggs not directly on the host plant, but on a stone or stick nearby to avoid predation from ants and spiders. When there is no shade, the eggs can be easily spotted by one of the many predators these butterflies have. This makes the onega the only recorded Neotropical butterfly to not oviposit (lay their eggs) directly on the host plant, a trait that is more common in butterflies whose eggs hibernate over winter.

This concludes part 1 of the Oleria onega, glasswing butterfly. Next time we will discuss their life cycle.

If you would like to purchase your very own glasswing butterflies click on the link, LINK

Much of the information obtained for this article was thanks to the research of Dr. Stephanie Astrid Gallusser in her fascinating study Biology, Behaviour and Taxonomy of two Oleria onega subspecies (Ithomiinae, Nymphalidae, Lepidoptera) in north-eastern Peru

Lamas, G.; Pérez, J.E. 1981. Danainae e Ithomiinae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) atraidos por
Heliotropium (Boraginaceae) en Madre de Dios, Peru. Revista Peruana Entomologica 24: 59-62.