Common Wanderer Butterfly (Pareronia valeria lutescens)

Common Wanderer Butterfly (Pareronia valeria lutescens). This butterfly is found in Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Summatra. It shares its common name with the considerably more well known and widely distributed Monarch Butterfly. It is similar to Pareronia valeria, found throughout India. The soft blue coloring is characteristic of the male, the female is yellow-orange. Common Wanderers often mimic the Glassy Tiger species. This mimicry is a way of discouraging predation. It is not limited just to appearance, when the female Wanderer is foraging for food, or looking for a host plant to oviposit, it flies and behaves like the Yellow Glassy Tiger. But when alarmed the Wanderer takes off in a very capable fashion. This is an example of Batesian mimicry.

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