Life Cycle
Males patrol for females in suitable habitats. Females will lay clusters of one to twenty reddish-brown eggs on the underside of host plant leaves. Young caterpillars are gregarious, while older larvae are solitary. The caterpillars will eat the leaves, stems, and seed capsules of the host plant. The larvae are either black or smoky red. Many fleshy filaments project from the sides of the body, the longest being on the anterior end. Over the dorsal part of the body are two rows of orange-red warts. The chrysalis is brown or green, with two horns on the head, a point on the thorax, and a ridge on each side of the abdomen. The abdomen is often patched with yellow. The chrysalis hibernates in areas with cold winters.
Read more about this topic: Battus Philenor
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or cycle:
“It is a conquest when we can lift ourselves above the annoyances of circumstances over which we have no control; but it is a greater victory when we can make those circumstances our helpers,—when we can appreciate the good there is in them. It has often seemed to me as if Life stood beside me, looking me in the face, and saying, “Child, you must learn to like me in the form in which you see me, before I can offer myself to you in any other aspect.””
—Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)
“Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)