Common Jezebel

Appearance

:''See glossary for terms used''
The wingspan of both males and females ranges from 6.5 to 8.5 cm.

Status

It has bright coloration to indicate the fact that it is unpalatable due to toxins accumulated by the larvae from the host-plants.

Like other unpalatable butterflies the Common Jezebel is mimicked by ''Prioneris sita'', the Painted Sawtooth. The Common Jezebel can be distinguished by the shape of the orange red spots on the hind wing. In the Painted Sawtooth these spots are very squarish whereas in the Common Jezebel they are more arrow head shaped. The Painted Sawtooth also flies faster and will also mudpuddle.

Reproduction

Eggs are laid in batches of about 10 or 20 in number although larger batch sizes are not unheard of. These are laid on the underside of a leaf of its foodplant.The caterpillars are gregarious in the first few instars. Caterpillars are yellow brown with a black head and have white tubercules from which long white hair arise.

"Long, cylindrical and smooth with an oily gloss. Two subdorsal rows of long white bristles springing from minute white tubercles; head, sides and back sparsely clothed with short white bristles: colour brown, head and feet black. It may be found from the beginning of August everywhere on the common 'mistletoe' , from which it will drop and hang by a thread if the tree is shaken. We have never found it feeding on anything else. Unlike most butterflies this species lays as many as twenty or thirty eggs on one leaf, in parallel rows, with equal intervals, and the larvae continue in some measure gregarious to the last, so that a large number of pupae are often found, at a little distance from each other, on a wall, or the trunk of a tree."

When born, they first make a meal of their eggshell and wander off to the nearest leaf-margin where they devour the leaf, side by side, and then move on to the next one. Leaf after leaf is collectively devoured by this group till they pass through the first few instars of the larval stage. However growth amongst these caterpillars is not even due to the varying amount of food that each is able to get. Accordingly their development is staggered, they pupate only when they are ready and the brood emerges over a period of time. The larva is not very lively. When disturbed, it drops off the leaf by a silken thread.

Food

The host plants are various species of small shrubs which are plant parasites growing on branches of trees such as ''Loranthus''. Their ability to form dense aggregations as caterpillars and to feed on ''Loranthus'' has led to suggestions that they could be used for control of this parasite.