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POPSTree Nymph Butterfly
The tree nymph is attracted to the color red, and will land on red shirts and hats. In the wild it can be seen from Kyushu to Okinawa, in fields and woodland. It is also seen across Southeast Asia.These butterflies seek out lianes and vines, and milkweed, which are all creeping plants that grow around trees. Many of these plants contain bitter-tasting alkaloids, and it is thought that the female locates the correct plants to lay her eggs on by smelling out the alkaloid The plant alkaloids apparently have a similar structure to the male pheromones of this butterfly, so it appears that there has been an ancient evolutionarily relationship between the butterfly and its food plant. Probably the alkaloids evolved first, and male nymph butterflies evolved to have similar-smelling pheromones. Alkaloids in plants that the butterfly does not feed on are completely unlike the male pheromone. The caterpillars accumulate the bitter alkaloids in their bodies, protecting them from predation. Th
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