Common Evening Brown

Nymphalidae; Satyrinae; Melanitis leda leda Linnaeus, 1758. This is the Common Evening Brown, a beautiful butterfly which can be seen in different seasonal forms and in a number of subspecies (I am not sure how many). M. l. leda is the ssp. that I see most often in the area where I live. The adult butterfly is magnificent and everyone admires it, but there is a downside. When you see a female of this subspecies in your ricefield, you can expect only one result - considerable damage to your crop. The female lays her eggs on the leaves of the rice and when the larvae hatch, the damage begins. They eat and grow through 5 instars, before pupating. The pupation period is 7 days, then out comes a new butterfly and the whole cycle is repeated. It is fascinating to watch, but the life cycle is so fast that the increase in numbers is almost exponential. I know that there have been attempts to encourage farmers to breed spiders to be released into the rice fields, in order to avoid the use of pesticides. I don't know how successful the trials have been, but it makes perfect sense to me. Spiders will do the job without poisoning the rice or killing other creatures which do not harm the rice and, best of all, the farmer does not have to pay the spiders for their work.