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Butterflies of
the Amazon and Andes
Corinna Daggerwing
Marpesia corinna
LATREILLE, 1813
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
CYRESTINAE
Tribe - CYRESTINI
Marpesia
corinna, male, Satipo, Peru
Introduction
The
genus Marpesia is confined largely to the neotropical region, but is closely allied to the
Mapwing and Maplet butterflies ( Cyrestis &
Chersonesia ) of the Oriental region.
Daggerwings
are similar in wing shape to Swordtails and Swallowtails ( Papilionidae ), but
the latter have 6 legs whereas Marpesia and all
other Nymphalidae genera have only 4 legs. Another feature to look for is the
antennae. In all Papilionids these are recurved at the tip, but in
Marpesia they are straight. In total there
are 17
Marpesia
species, all with the same wing shape as
zerynthia,
except for
petreus
which has 2 tails on each hindwing and a deeply scalloped outer margin to it's
forewing.
Males of Marpesia
corinna
can easily be confused with
corita or marcella,
both of which have similar uppersides. The orange bands however are
narrower in corinna, and only extend slightly onto the
hind-wings. The females are dark brown
with white bands on the forewings of
marcella and corinna,
and orange bands on the forewings of
corita.
The
underside of
Marpesia corinna is pale orange with narrow linear white
stripes, while marcella is similar
but has much broader stripes. Both are quite different from corita
which has a pinkish-brown ground colour marbled and scalloped with
purplish on the outer half of the wings, and marked with irregular
white stripes in the basal area.
Marpesia corinna occurs in the
eastern Andes from Colombia to Peru.
Habitats
This species appears to be confined to cloudforests and transitional rainforest
/ cloudforest zones in the eastern Andes, at altitudes between about 400-1800m.
Lifecycle
I have no data relating to
corinna,
but the following characteristics are applicable in general to the genus
Marpesia
:
The
eggs are white or yellowish, and laid singly on the foliage of trees and shrubs
in the family Moraceae - including
Ficus, Chlorophora, Brosimum
and Artocarpus.
The
fully grown caterpillars are very colourful, typically marked with red and / or
yellow spots and stripes. There is a single row of unbranched, recurved spines
along the back, and the head is adorned with a pair of very long wavy spines.
They feed diurnally and rest on the upper surface of leaves. The
pupae are typically pale in colour, marked with blackish spots or blotches, and have wiry filaments projecting from the back of the abdomen and from the head.
Adult behaviour
This species is usually
encountered as small groups of up to about 6 males, visiting wet
sand or mud to imbibe mineral-laden moisture.
They are often found near small streams, waterfalls or fords.
The butterflies tend to feed with their wings held half-open, but
in cooler conditions they will sometimes bask with wings fully
outspread. If disturbed they fly up and settle on nearby bushes at
a height of about 2-3 metres, where they bask for several minutes
until they feel safe enough to return to the ground.
Females are seen less often, usually
when visiting Eupatorium flowers in
forest clearings.
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