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27 February 2017

Plain Tiger – Al Khafah

I saw a number of Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus in Al Khafah recently and managed to photograph one shown below. The Plain Tiger is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of about 7–8 centimetres. The body is black with many white spots and the wings are tawny, the upper side brighter and richer than the underside. Background color and extent of white on the forewings varies somewhat across the wide range. They occur from Africa and southern Europe, eastwards via Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar to China, Java and Sulawesi. The butterfly is distasteful to predators and therefore flies slowly and leisurely, generally close to the ground and in a straight line giving a would-be predator ample time to recognise and avoid attacking it. They can be seen throughout Saudi Arabia but appear more common in the southwest than the Eastern Province.