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  • Roger Grund

South Australian
Butterflies & Moths

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Gallery

Catalog Monarch or Wanderer Gallery

Adults

plexippus_ad_m2.jpg (51.8 KB)

Photography by L. Hunt

plexippus_ad_male_uns.jpg (25.5 KB)

Males

plexippus_ad_f.jpg (23.3 KB)

Female.

The female is distinguished by the absence of the small raised black sex pouch in the lower-centre of each hindwing.

plexippus_ad_male_pencil.jpg (21.2 KB)

Extruded hair pencil at the rear end of the abdomen of the male Wanderer. These pencils dispense a characteristic scented pheromone, believed to be mainly used during courtship, which masks the pheromones of the unmated female from other males in the vicinity.

Food Host

plexippus_foodplant3.jpg (49.5 KB)

Fully grown larvae demolishing its hostplant *Gomphocarpus fruticosus
(garden swan plant or narrow-leaf cotton-bush)

plexippus_Acurrasavica.jpg (52.8 KB)

Hostplant *Asclepias curassavica (red-head cotton-bush)

Eggs

plexippus_egg3.jpg (20.3 KB)
plexippus_egg4.jpg (16.5 KB)

Larvae

plexippus_1st_instar.jpg (21.9 KB)

First instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_2nd_instar.jpg (18.4 KB)

Second instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_3rd_instar.jpg (17.1 KB)

Third instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_4th_instar.jpg (16.1 KB)

Fourth instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_5th_instar.jpg (27.7 KB)

Fifth instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_5th_instar2.jpg (24.3 KB)

Fifth instar larva, head on the left

plexippus_5th_instar_dark.jpg (33.9 KB)

Dark final instar larvae occurring in winter

plexippus_5th_instar_dark_2.jpg (31.7 KB)

Dark final instar larvae occurring in winter

plexippus_5th_instar6.jpg (12.2 KB)
plexippus_5th_instar3.jpg (24.9 KB)

Fifth instar larvae.

The larva on top has just moulted from the fourth instar, and has an unmarked yellow head and crumpled tentacular filaments. The head gradually acquires black pigmentation, and the larva above has a fully pigmented head.

Pupae

plexippus_pupating_strip1s.jpg (22.5 KB)

Larva in the throes of pupating. On the left is the prepupa about 12 hours after hanging up.

The second picture is after a further 12 hours, and shows the larva at the point of pupation where it is exerting internal pressure to its outer skin, immediately behind its head.
(0 minutes).

This causes the outer skin and head to split, shown in Picture 3.
(2 minutes after Picture 2)

The larva then pulsates like a concertina, to shrug the outer skin along its body to its posterior end (at top of picture).
(Picture 4 after 3 min, Picture 5 after 3 1/2 min)

plexippus_pupating_strip2s.jpg (21.7 KB)

The skin is eventually moved all the way to the rear (top).
(Picture 1 after 4 min, Picture 2 after 5 min)

The cremaster is then firmly attached to the white silken pad on the branch.
(Picture 3 after 6 1/2 min)

Then the pupa (no longer a larva) wriggles like mad to make sure the cremaster becomes firmly attached, and to discard the skin so that it does not get in the way of the abdomen as it shrinks to its final shape.
(Picture 4 after 8 min, Picture 5 after 10 min)

plexippus_pupating_strip3s.jpg (20.4 KB)

As the pupa acquires its final shape, the abdomen shrinks while the wing cases elongate, until the pupa eventually acquires its final shape, although at this stage it is still soft.
(Picture 1 after 14 min, Picture 2 after 22 min, Picture 3 after 38 min, Picture 4 after 63 min, Picture 5 after 120 minutes)

plexippus_pupa.jpg (7.97 KB)
plexippus_pupa2.jpg (7.85 KB)

Pupa of the Wanderer after several days of hardening, and after the yellow rings have faded.

All photography by R. Grund unless stated otherwise.