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Common Lime
Papilio demoleus demoleus
15.456, 119.921
Field Notes
Description:
Papilionidae; Papilioninae; Papilionini; Papilio demoleus demoleus Linnaeus 1758. I have posted a number of spottings to Project Noah featuring this species. This is because of a number of factors. It is a frequent visitor to our backyard, the transition through the various larval stages is quite dramatic (especially from 4th to 5th instar) and the more I observe this butterfly's larvae, the more surprises I get. I took some pictures on Saturday (the first four pictures above). I had no intention at that time of using them for a PN Spotting. I just wanted some more pictures for my collection. I had planned on taking daily pictures of this larva until it became an adult butterfly. I knew there was a typhoon (Philippine Name Karding, International Name Noru) out in the Pacific, heading for the Philippines, but nobody really knew that it would quickly develop into a super typhoon and cause so much destruction. Anyway, all of this about the weather is to build a picture for you of the resilience of the P. d. demoleus larva. By this morning (Monday), I had quite put it out of my mind (and my plan for daily pictures) because I knew the storm must have killed it. Nothing so small and exposed could have any hope of surviving that storm. Wrong! This morning, like everyone else, we went out to salvage whatever we could from the wreckage in our garden and backyard. A little distance from its original position, I spotted a familiar plant pot and knew that it was the one with the sapling citrus tree which had been adopted as a host plant by my larva. You can imagine my astonishment and delight when I picked up the plant to replace it in its original spot and there it was, the same larva still on the plant. I knew it was the same one because it was the only one on that plant before the storm. Not only had it survived, but it had gone from late 4th instar to mid 5th instar in just 48 hours. So, I decided there and then that it deserved its very own spotting in Project Noah. The last photo shows how it looked after the typhoon.
Habitat:
Spotted on a Citrus plant in our backyard.
Notes:
I realize that this species could not have survived for millions of years if it was not strong and resilient, that goes without saying. However, I think it is possible that there is something else at work here. It is documented that these larvae progress faster from one instar to the next when the conditions (temperature and humidity) are favourable and conversely slow down the transition when conditions are less suitable. Is it possible, therefore, that they can sense the approach of dangerous storms and accelerate their progress towards pupation because it is (I think) a safer condition in which they no longer have to move around to eat?
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