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Butterflies of the Andes
 
Golden Lady Slipper
Pierella hyceta HEWITSON, 1859
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily - SATYRINAE
Tribe - HAETERINI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Pierella hyceta, Manu cloudforest, 1500m
 
Introduction
 
The genus Pierella includes 11 species, all of which are confined to the neotropical region. The butterflies can be instantly recognised by their characteristic wing shape, cryptic dead-leaf underside pattern, and their skulking flight just above the surface of the ground, in the darkness beneath the forest understorey.
 
All members of the genus have brown uppersides, marked on the forewings with thin, feint brown lines, and on the hindwings with dark post-median ocelli or spots. Many of the species have a blue suffusion over the hindwings, while others are marked variously with white, reddish or orange.
 
Pierella hyceta can easily be distinguished from it's cogeners by virtue of the colouration of the upperside hindwings - these are suffused with beautiful golden-orange, and have four brown post-median spots. The only species with which hyceta can be confused is
P. luna lesbia, which has a reduced and much more clearly defined orange area, and only two brown spots, neither of which fall within the orange area. There is another orange species - nereis, but that has a prominent and very clearly defined white median band that appears on both wing surfaces.
 
Pierella hyceta, Manu cloudforest, 1400m
 
Habitats
 
This is a pre-montane species, found in wet rainforest at elevations between about 800-1600m. Most other Pierella species however have a greater altitudinal range, typically from about 100-1600m.
 
Lifecycle
 
The eggs are pale, globular, and laid singly on the young leaves of the foodplant, usually on seedlings.
 
The caterpillars are a dull brownish colour, with vague darker markings and many thin longitudinal lines along the back and sides. The head has two short horns, and the tail has a pair of caudal prongs. The caterpillar feeds on the leaves of Heliconia, and possibly also on Calathea ( Marantaceae ). It feeds nocturnally, and rests by day in a head-downwards posture on the lower stem of the foodplant.
 
The pupa is plump, and pale brown with dark marbling and mottling on the wing cases and abdomen. It is suspended by the cremaster from woody stems.
 
Adult behaviour

 

The butterflies are usually encountered in two's or three's, along dark narrow forest trails, or amongst bamboo thickets. They fly mainly in the gloom of pre-dawn, but can be disturbed when walking along trails until mid-morning. Like all Pierella species the flight is low and skulking, but surprisingly rapid, and has been compared with the movements of a ballroom dancer's feet, hence the vernacular name "Ladies Slipper" or "Lady Slipper".

 

Pierella butterflies avoid bright light, and by late morning have secreted themselves deep in the undergrowth, often choosing to hide amongst the tangle of rootlets which are found at the base of certain palms.

 

As with other Pierella species, hyceta tends to flick it's wings open momentarily just after settling, but then immediately closes them. On rare occasions, just after dawn on cool days, the butterflies will bask with the wings outspread for a few seconds, but this is rarely observed.

 

 
 
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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