Precis octavia

Gaudy commodore
Winter form of P. o. sesamus
Summer form of P. o. sesamus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Precis
Species:	P. octavia
Binomial name
Precis octavia (Cramer, 1777)
Synonyms
Papilio octavia Cramer, 1777 Junonia octavia octavia Precis sesamus (Trimen, 1883) Junonia octavia sesamus Papilio amestris Drury, 1782 Papilio zingha Fabricius, 1787 Vanessa emma Godart, 1819 Precis amestris f. intermedia Wichgraf, 1918 Precis octavia ab. kuala Heslop, 1959 Precis octavia var. natalensis Staudinger, 1885 Junonia calescens Butler, 1894 Precis octavia f. transiens Wichgraf, 1918

Precis octavia, the gaudy commodore, is a species of butterfly in the Nymphalidae family. It is native to Africa.

The southern subspecies (Precis octavia sesamus) has a summer form (natalensis) which is red with black markings, and a winter form (sesamus) which is blue with a line of red markings on the wings. The winter form is slightly larger than the summer form. In both forms the males and females are alike, however the females are slightly larger. Intermediate forms of the gaudy commodore are rare, but display a wide range of mixtures of the wing patterns of both forms.

The northern subspecies (Precis octavia octavia) has only one form which is red with black markings.

The southern subspecies of these butterflies (Precis octavia sesamus) is found from the border region of the Eastern and Western Cape in South Africa and along the eastern side of South Africa, to Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya.

The northern subspecies (Precis octavia octavia) occurs from Sierra Leone to Somalia.

The eggs are tiny, rounded, green domes with ribs running up the sides.

The larvae are variable; orange, or orange with black bands, or almost completely black. The final-instar larvae are black when reared at the lower temperatures associated with the winter form, and bright orange when reared at the slightly higher summer temperatures.

Larval food plants include Plectranthus esculentus, Plectranthus fruticosus, Rabdosiella calycina, Pycnostachys reticulata and Pycnostachys urticifolia.

The pupae hang upside down and have a knobbley appearance.

By keeping the pupae at different temperatures (warmer or cooler), the two forms of the adults can be produced, while maintaining pupae at "boundary" temperatures produces transitional forms.

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Wikipedia