Greta oto Butterfly Hidding in the Hibiscus

Greta oto Butterfly Hidding in the Hibiscus.... more

by Debra Miller

Title

Greta oto Butterfly Hidding in the Hibiscus

Artist

Debra Miller

Medium

Photograph

Description

Greta oto Butterfly Hidding in the Hibiscus.

Greta oto is a brush-footed butterfly, and is a member of the clearwing clade.[1] Its wingspan is 2.2 to 2.4 in (5.6 to 6.1 cm).

Adults range from Mexico through Panama.[1] G. oto visits common flowers like lantana, but prefers to lay its eggs on plants of the tropical nightshade genus Cestrum.[1] The red and purple striped caterpillars feed on these toxic plants and store the alkaloids in their tissues, making them distasteful to predators such as birds. They retain their toxicity in adulthood. The same alkaloids that make them poisonous also are converted into pheromones by the males, which use them to attract females.

G. oto adults also exhibit a number of interesting behaviors, such as long migrations and lekking among males.

Butterflies Are Blooming is Meijer Gardens' most popular annual
exhibition and the largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibit in the nation.
Every Year March 1–April 30, visitors can escape the Michigan winter and mingle
with more than 6,000 tropical butterflies flying free in the 15,000-square-foot
Lena Meijer Conservatory.
The exhibition boasts more than 40 different species from the Far East,
Africa and Central America. Each week hundreds of chrysalises arrive at Meijer
Gardens and are painstakingly sorted, inspected, labeled and pinned in our
sealed Butterfly Bungalow. The chrysalises are then placed in a special
emergence area of the Bungalow where visitors can witness through a window their
magical transformation into butterflies!
Once ready to be released into the Conservatory, the butterflies are placed
on plants where they acclimate to the environment and gain strength before
taking to the air. It's a wonderful place for photos and just one of the
opportunities for visitors to observe the butterflies up-close and personal.
Throughout the tropical environment, butterflies can be viewed drinking nectar
from the flowering plants and feeding stations, lighting on the odd nose or
shoulder, and congregating along the stream beds, as well as in flight all
around.

Uploaded

December 24th, 2010