User:Aeo7703/Caligo telamonius

Caligo telamonius is also known as the pale owl butterfly. The species was first described by Cajetan von Felder and Rudolf Felder in 1862. It is found in southern North America, Central America, and South America.

Wing Pattern
C. telamonius has a unique pattern on its wings. It is mostly brown and black with eye spots on it as well. There is a beige supplementary ring with black and yellow pigments at different ratios.

Parasite Of Caligo telamonius
Wolbachia is common parasite in arthropods. C.telamonius was one of the subjects tested and it showed that the bacteria could take over the species so much that the bacterial DNA took over during the study in C.telamonius. That means that when the DNA barcode was looked at for C.telamonius after being infected with Wolbachia its DNA looked more like Wolbachia DNA than C.telamonius.

Location
It was first recorded in the State of Hidalgo, Central Mexico. The first C. telamonius was obtained on 3 October 2009 and collected in an urban garden at the center of the town of San Felipe Orizatlán. The C.telamonius can often be found in tropical environments such as the Piedras Blancas National Park. Theories for why it took so long to find this organism are one, because the jungles of Mexico act as a natural corridor and two, they might have migrated more north due to climate change. C. telamonius can be found from sea level to the highlands of the Andes.

Subspecies
Two subspecies belong to the species Caligo telamonius.


 * Caligo telamoius memnon
 * Caligo telamonius menus

Life Cycle of Immature Stages
The time it took from oviposition to emergence was about 72 days. It took 50 days from first to fifth stage, prepupa phase 5 to 6 and the pupa from 15 to 17 days. C. telamonius can be raised in animal breeding conditions because it has shown high survival rates and a shorter duration of the cycle time. Larvae of C. telamonius exhibit a larval cycle of five instars. During this time they remain in the host plant they feed on at night. The first instar larvae are beige with a large cephalic capsule. They were also covered in black setae. After hatching they were about 2mm by 1 mm. The larvae began to eat the chorion of the egg and then started consuming leaves. After the larvae hatches their body length increases about 3 or 4 mm within 24 hours pale green with a brown macula. After three days the larvae develop two dorsal spots on their flexible spines. At the end of the fifth instar the pre-pupa were a lighter color. Their average total length was 56mm. During the pupa stage they have a brown coloration with a pair of silvery lateral spots on the wing sheaths. Their appearance is like a dry leaf. They also have seven groups of black setae on the longitudinal line of the back with patterns of dark brown lines on a lighter-toned background. The average length of the larvae in the pupa stage is 38.93mm.

Physical Description
The larvae of C. telamonius are about 15 cm in length with an elongated body, horns, and a forked tail. They are green in the first instar and are brown by the last instar. Their diet consists of decomposing fruits, fresh dung, and fluids from reptile corpses. The larval body is dark purple and covered with small setae that give it a brown sheen. An adult's wingspan can reach about 20 cm. The ventral surface of the hind wings is characterized by having ocelli that give the look of owl eyes. These ocelli that create this illusion act as a defense mechanism. C. telamonius eggs are spherical and white with channels that go from the micropyle to its opposite pole. After four days in oviposition the eggs turned light brown with a black spot on the micropyle.

Feeding
Caligo telamonius and Morpho helenor exhibit similar responses when exposed to semiochemicals in rotting fruits that signal these organisms to eat it. An EAD-analysis was performed on these organisms which showed that not only do their sensilla on their antennae detect these signals but other organs such as their proboscis, labial palpi, and legs also detect this chemical signal. The presence of volatile compounds was done in ripe, unripe, and fermented bananas using GC-MS to see how the butterflies would respond to them. This study showed that these compounds only appeared in the fermented bananas which is how the butterflies know which they want to eat.