Blue tiger butterflies on a tree in Bengaluru, India

© Amith Nag Photography/Getty Image

Don't just fly, darling. Soar!. Blue tiger butterflies

Tirumala limniace, also called the blue tiger, is one of the common butterflies found in India. It belongs to the crows and tigers, that is, the Danainae group of the brush-footed butterfly family. It is a large butterfly with a wingspan of 90 to 100 millimetres, with the males being smaller than the females. The upper side of the wing is dark brown to black and patterned with bluish-white, semi-transparent spots and lines. The blue of the bluish-white spots consists of the pigment called pterobilin.

Today, as seen on our homepage, there are thousands of blue tiger butterflies flocking on a tree. This is considered an anti-predator strategy in cool temperatures when the butterflies are slightly dormant. They feed mostly on toxic plants, fly slowly, and spend long periods resting in sheltered areas during winter. Though, these butterflies are evenly distributed in South Asia and Southeast Asia, in 2019, a single adult specimen was reported from the Balearic Islands, marking it the first record of the species in Europe too.