Скачать или смотреть Green Urania Migratory Moth

The Green Urania is a migratory moth (not a butterfly). The moth migration is driven by the larval foodplant, the Omphalea Vine which can grow at the top of trees. When the moths move into an area to reproduce, the eggs are laid on the vine leaves. When the larvae hatch the stress on the plant, resulting from having a huge number of gregarious moth caterpillars devouring its leaves, is to produce defensive toxins. Over the course of three generations, when the larvae pupate and the third generation of adult moths emerge, the toxins will have become so concentrated that they cannot feed on the vines in that area. Female moths can discriminate between the toxic and non-toxic vine leaves, so they migrate to an area where they have not been for some time where the vines have become palatable again. These migrations pass up and down throughout Central America over the course of several years. At the time these videos were taken (October 2013), the hills along the Caribbean coast were host to these beautiful iridescent insects.