Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

Genus: Melanitis

Species: M. leda

Binomial Name: Melanitis leda (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms:

Papilio leda Linnaeus, 1758

Papilio ismene Cramer, [1775]

Papilio solandra Fabricius, 1775

Cyllo helena Westwood, 1851

Cyllo fulvescens Guénée, 1863

Melanitis leda africana Fruhstorfer, 1908

Melanitis leda africana f. zitenides Fruhstorfer, 1908

Melanitis leda ab. plagiata Aurivillius, 1911

They are found in Africa, South Asia and South-east Asia extending to parts of Australia. Melanitis leda can be found in forests, parks, plantations, orchards, shrubs and mangrove forests. This species can be found up to about 800 m above sea level. Melanitis leda is spread in Africa (Madagascar), Arabia, India, South Asia, Southeast Asia and North Australia.

Host Range
Two species of greenhorned caterpillar infest rice; these are the Melanitis leda ismene Cramer and Mycalesis sp. The caterpillars feed on a wide variety of grasses including rice (Oryza sativa), bamboos, Andropogon, Rotboellia cochinchinensis, Brachiaria mutica, Cynodon, Imperata, and millets such as Oplismenus compositus, Panicum and Eleusine indica. Adults feed mainly on nectar, and in rare cases visit rotting fruits. They are Herbivore (larva), Nectarivore {adult). Melanitis leda larvae feed on the young leaves of the host plant Panicum maximum and other plants from the Poaceae family such as rice and maize

• Egg: White, round laid singly on the paddy leaves.
• Larva: Green with roughened skin flattened dorsally and has a dark brown head with a pair of red horn like processed and two yellow processes in the anal end. It feeds on the leaves.
• Pupa: The pupa of M. leda ismene is dark green, smooth, and hangs from rice leaves by its anal extremity. Dark green chrysalis hangs from the leaf and is attached to the leaf blade by its anal extremity.
• Adult: The butterfly is dark brown with large wings having a few black and yellow eye-like markings one on each of the forewings and six ocellar spots on hind wings. Wet-season form: Forewing: apex subacute; termen slightly angulated just below apex, or straight. Upperside brown. Forewing with two large subapical black spots, each with a smaller spot outwardly of pure white inwardly bordered by a ferruginous interrupted lunule; costal margin narrowly pale. Hindwing with a dark, white-centred, fulvous-ringed ocellus subterminally in interspace two, and the apical ocellus, sometimes also others of the ocelli, on the underside, showing through.
  Underside paler, densely covered with transverse dark brown striae; a discal curved dark brown narrow band on forewing; a post-discal similar oblique band, followed by a series of ocelli: four on the forewing, that in interspace 8 the largest; six on the hindwing, the apical and subtornal the largest.
• Dry-season form: Forewing: apex obtuse and more or less falcate; termen posterior to falcation straight or sinuous. Upperside: ground colour similar to that in the wet-season form, the markings, especially the ferruginous lunules inwardly bordering the black sub-apical spots on forewing, larger, more extended below and above the black costa. Hindwing: the ocellus in interspace 2 absent, posteriorly replaced by three or four minute white subterminal spots.[3]
  Undersides vary in colour greatly. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen in both seasonal forms brown or greyish brown: the antennae annulated with white, ochraceous at apex.[3]

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Resident butterflies are known to fight off visitors to the area during dusk hours.[5] This chase behaviour is elicited even by pebbles thrown nearby. Larvae of green horned caterpillars feed on leaf margins and leaf blades. The feeding damage causes removal of leaf tissues and veins. Melanitis leda flies at moderate speed, usually active at dawn and before dusk, rarely seen during the day except when feeling disturbed. Often seen flying to visit flowers and puddles.

The caterpillars feed on leaves of the host plant, and tend to rest lengthwise on the underside of a grass blade during pauses between feeds. The caterpillars are gregarious and often feed and rest together (in a neat row) on the leaf underside.

The eggs are laid in small clusters (clusters of 2, 3 and 6 have been observed) on the underside of a grass blade of the host plant. Each spherical egg (about 1mm in diameter) is pale translucent with a light yellowish green tinge. The surface appears to be smooth to the naked eyes.

The egg takes about 3 days to hatch. The young caterpillar nibbles away a portion of the eggshell to exit and then proceeds to devour the rest of the egg shell almost entirely. It has a cylindrical body in whitish colour, and an initial body length of about 3-3.1mm. The body is covered with dorso-lateral and lateral rows of black setae. At the posterior end, there is a pair of backward-pointing processes. Its dark colored head features a number of setae and has a pair of short and rounded horns and a few lateral protuberances. As a result of its leaf diet, the 1st instar caterpillar soon takes on a strong greenish undertone. The first instar lasts about 3 days with the body length increasing to about 6-6. 8mm. In the 2nd instar, the cephalic horns become proportionately longer, and the two anal processes longer and thus pronounced. The few lateral conical protuberances are no longer present. The body is yellowish green, and the head is mostly black except for a central green patch. The body is also adorned with numerous minute whitish tubercles, each with a single seta emanating from it. Thin, lateral white bands are also present. The 2nd instar lasts about 2-2.5 days with the body length reaching about 10-11mm. The 3rd instar caterpillar resembles the previous instar closely. The head capsule is mostly black except for the basal areas around the mouth parts which are pale lime green. The cephalic horns are again proportionately longer. This stage takes about 2-2.5 days to complete with body length reaching about 18-19mm.

The 4th instar caterpillar again has proportionately longer cephalic horns which now take on a hinge of reddish brown in its coloration. Small, lateral, white patches could be seen in the head capsule of some specimens. Otherwise, the caterpillar bears strong resemblance to those in the early two instars. The 4th instar lasts about 3.5-4 days with body length reaching about 31-32mm.The next moult brings the caterpillar to its 5th and final instar. The body is yellowish to lime green with the head exhibiting remarkable variations in coloration and markings. The cephalic horns are usually red to reddish brown, with some being whitish on the backward side. The head proper could be black with greenish patches and white lateral patches, or entirely green with lateral whitish bands. In a period of about 4.5-5.5 days, the body grows to a maximum length of about 45-51mm.Toward the end of the 5th instar, the body gradually shrinks in length and turns mostly yellowish green. Typically, the caterpillar will seek out a spot on the underside of a leaf blade to spin a silk pad. It then anchors itself there via its anal end, and assumes its upside-down pre-pupatory pose.Toward the end of the 5th instar, the body gradually shrinks in length and turn mostly yellowish green. Typically, the caterpillar will seek out a spot on the underside of a leaf blade to spin a silk pad. It then anchors itself there via its anal end, and assumes its upside-down pre-pupatory pose.

After about one day as a pre-pupa, pupation takes place. The smooth pupa is yellowish green throughout. It is slightly angular in appearance, with a dorsal keel on the thorax and ridges defining the dorsal wing margins. There are a few dark stripes in the wing pads, otherwise the pupa bears no other markings. Length of pupae: 21-22mm.After 6 days of development, the pupa becomes darkened in color, and the ringed-spot on the forewings can now be seen through the pupal skin in the wing pads. The next day the eclosion event takes place with the adult butterfly emerging to start the next phase of its life cycle.

In a nutshell: Melanitis leda reproduces by laying eggs (oviparous), female butterflies lay their eggs in small groups of 2, 3 or 6 eggs under the leaves of the host plant. The eggs are round, about 1 mm in diameter, pale translucent with a yellowish green tinge, the surface looks smooth. When the larvae hatch, they eat the egg shells to get out, after which they are consumed before consuming the first leaves. The butterfly lays round white eggs singly on the leaves. The caterpillar is green, slightly flattened with two red horn processes on the head and two yellow processes in the anal end. It pupates in a greenish chrysalis, which suspends from the leaf. The butterfly is dark brown with large wings having a black and yellow eye like spot one on each of the fore wings.

M. leda larvae rest on the undersides of leaves, parallel to the midrib, and feed on the leaves mostly at night. M. leda ismene generally occurs in low numbers in rice and does not cause yield loss. However, occasional high populations have been reported in Iloilo, Philippines (Lumaban and Litsinger, 1978); in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India (Katiyar et al., 1976); in Manipur, India (Singh and Amu-Singh, 1979); in Timur Province, Java, Indonesia (Chu, 1979), and in Guangdong, China (Li, 1982).

1. Larva feeds on leaf blades of rice.
2. Leaves are defoliated from the margin or tip irregularly.

1. Plants/Leaves/external feeding
2. Check for the presence of alternate hosts and natural enemies.
3. Check for the presence of insects: shiny and spherical pearl-like eggs yellow green larva with body covered by small and yellow bead-like hairs
4. Check for feeding damage on leaf margins and leaf tips. 
5. Similar damage symptoms can be caused by rice skipper and green semilooper. To confirm green horned caterpillar damage, check for insect pests feeding on rice foliage.

Greenhorned caterpillars are minor pests of rice. Their potential severity is generally too low to cause yield loss. Natural enemies usually control their populations and the plant can recover from the feeding damage of greenhorned caterpillars.

• Expose the eggs to be picked up by birds after ploughing and trim the bunds.
• Dusting the crop with 5-10% methyl parathion 2% @ 25-30 kg/ha. fenitrothion (or) malathion 5% @ 20 kg/ha.
• Spraying nuvan 100 EC @ 200 ml/ha (or) malathion 50 EC@ 2.5 lit/ha.
• Bio-control agents such as Cacallus spp., Barycomus spp. and Seelio spp., which are egg parasites should be encouraged.
• The eggs are parasitized by trichogrammatid wasps. Chalcid wasp and two species of tachinid flies parasitize the larvae and a vespid wasp preys on the larvae.

M. leda ismene can be removed by hand picking, where labour is available (Grist and Lever, 1969).

• No rice varieties have been developed which are resistant to M. leda ismene (Reissig et al., 1986).
• Natural biological control agents often keep the larval population under control. For example, the eggs are parasitized by trichogrammatid wasps. Chalcid wasp and two species of tachinid flies parasitize the larvae and a vespid wasp preys on the larvae.

Chemicals are rarely used or needed to control M. leda ismene.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanitis_leda#cite_note-funet-2
2. https://plantwiseplusknowledgebank.org/doi/10.1079/PWKB.Species.34400
3. https://plantwiseplusknowledgebank.org/doi/10.1079/PWKB.Species.34400#tabular-2
4. http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/macleay/larvae/nymp/leda.html
5. http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/training/fact-sheets/pest-management/insects/item/greenhorned-caterpillarT
6. https://baliwildlife.com/encyclopedia/animals/insects/butterflies/the-common-evening-brown/
7. https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2015/08/life-history-of-common-evening-brown.
8. html http://eagri.org/eagri50/ENTO331/lecture02/009.html