Cruiser butterfly
Vindula sp.
Cruiser butterfly · Carlsbad · 7 March 2026
Feeding on overripe banana rather than nectar, which is the habit of a good many tropical butterflies that butterfly houses cater to by putting out fermenting fruit. The Cruisers are butterflies of the forests of Southeast Asia, from India to New Guinea, and the females in particular are drawn to rotting fruit and sap.
This one was first written up as a Charaxes, but the shape argues against it: a Charaxes has a pair of tails on the hindwing and a hooked forewing, and this hindwing is rounded and tailless. The underside pattern, orange with a white band across the forewing and a row of ringed eyespots along the hindwing, is a good match for a female Cruiser, one of the Vindula species. Probable rather than certain from one angle.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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