''Danaus dorippus'', the dorippus tiger, is a butterfly belonging to the
danaine group of the
brush-footed butterflies family.
Systematics and taxonomy
''Danaus dorippus'' was formerly regarded as a subspecies of ''Danaus chrysippus'', the plain tiger or African monarch. It is now regarded as a distinct species. It appears (from analysis of
mtDNA sequences, which are only inherited from the mother) that the dorippus tiger is the product of an ancient lineage of ''Danaus''
hybridizing with plain tiger females.
[Smith et al. (2005)] As the plain tiger is known to be
parasitized
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
at least occasionally by ''
Spiroplasma
''Spiroplasma'' is a genus of Mollicutes, a group of small bacteria without cell walls. ''Spiroplasma'' shares the simple metabolism, parasitic lifestyle, fried-egg colony morphology and small genome of other ''Mollicutes'', but has a distinctive ...
''
bacteria which selectively kill off male hosts,
[Jiggins et al. (2000)] a subsequent scarcity of plain tiger males might have led to this hybridization and the
evolution of the dorippus tiger. From the color pattern of this species, it can be assumed that the ancient lineage had no black apex on the forewings, as this character is still absent in ''D. dorippus''.
File:Nymphalidae - Danaus dorippus.JPG, ''Danaus dorippus'' from Erythrea, mounted specimen
Description
''Danaus dorippus'' is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of about . The body is black with a few white spots. The wings are tawny and have a thin border of black enclosing a series of semicircular white spots. The hindwing has three or four black spots around the center.
This species is mimicked (
Batesian mimicry
Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on bu ...
) by the females of ''
Hypolimnas misippus
''Hypolimnas misippus'', the Danaid eggfly, mimic, or diadem, is a widespread species of nymphalid butterfly. It is well known for polymorphism and mimicry. Males are blackish with distinctive white spots that are fringed in blue. Females are i ...
'', form ''inaria'',
[ The study of mimicry (Batesian and Müllerian) by temperature experiments on two Tropical butterflies]
/ref> that has orange forewing tip with white spotting.
Distribution
This species can be found in eastern and southern Africa (mainly in Kenya, Uganda, Erythrea, Oman, Tanzania) and sporadically in India.
Footnotes
References
* , David A.S.; Lushai, Gugs & Allen, John A. (2005). A classification of ''Danaus'' butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA. '' Zool. J. Linn. Soc.'' 144(2): 191–212. (HTML abstract)
* , F.M.; Hurst, G.D.D.; Jiggins, C.D.; Schulenburg, J.H.G.v.D. & Majerus, M.E.N. (2000). The butterfly ''Danaus chrysippus'' is infected by a male-killing ''Spiroplasma'' bacterium. ''Parasitology'' 120(5): 439–446. (HTML abstract)
External links
Funet
Flickr
Butterflies described in 1845
Danaus (butterfly)
{{Danainae-stub