RED RIM BUTTERFLIES (or Crimson Banded Black Butterfly) of BELIZE

LAUREN'S BUTTERFLIES OF BELIZE (Part Seven)

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BELIZE RED RIM BUTTERFLIES
The Red Rim or Crimson Banded Black Butterfly is a species can be found in Central American, sometimes as far north as Texas.  They can be seen flying between March and November in subtropical forests of Belize. 

Adults are hard to miss identify with their bright red patches. The caterpillars of this species are gray-brown with raised green marks and spikes.They have a velvety black forewing with a grey hindwing. The hindwing has a pinkish-red band (as you see in the picture to the left).

Red Rim Butterflies like shady roadsides and humid thorn-scrub forests, where it can be found cruising lazily among the shadows. For this reason, the rainforests of Central America are a favorite habitat for this butterfly.  Common throughout this region, Red Rim Butterflies often strays over into Mexican and the southern part of Texas, but it seems to have been unable to establish a breeding population there.

It's host plant is the Pine Nettle.  Here the Red Rim Butterflies lays its off-white, grooved eggs that are protected by long hairs.
Caterpillars are spiny, colored a gray-brown with green looking warts. They are thickened in the middle with a light-colored band on the seventh segment and a head armed with horns.

The adults are attracted to rotting fruit and feed on the fermenting juices.

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