Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias)

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
Junonia lemonias	Jun 09, 2026	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

The life cycle of various insects hidden in the green nature around us is always very mysterious. Today I am sharing with you a picture of a beautiful thorny caterpillar or larva, which grows up to become a very beautiful butterfly. This attractive butterfly is well known to the common people and butterfly lovers as 'Lemon Pansy'. This dark caterpillar, perfectly captured on your camera, is actually an early form or larval stage of this Lemon Pansy butterfly.

​Scientific name:
In the vast world of zoology, every living thing has a specific and unique identity. The current and most accepted scientific name of this beautiful butterfly is Junonia lemonias. Around 1758, the famous biologist Carl Linnaeus first introduced it to people with this name. However, if we look into the history of science, it is seen that it was once known as Papilio lemonias or Precis lemonias, which are now used as synonyms.
Family and Genus:
Like all other insects in the world, they are an integral part of the Insecta class of the large Arthropoda order. In the scientific classification of insects, they are included in the Lepidoptera order. Their family name is Nymphalidae and their genus or genus name is Junonia.

Size and Body Structure:
The size and structure of each stage of the life cycle of this insect is completely different. The pictures you took show the perfect form of its larva or caterpillar stage. The caterpillar looks like a cylinder and has numerous thorns all over its body, branching like tree branches. Although their basic body color is dull black, in sunlight they often have a light bluish tint. There is a bright orange ring just behind the head. On the other hand, when the caterpillar passes through the pupa stage and becomes a full-fledged butterfly, its wings are brown. There are lemon-yellow dots on the wings and some beautiful eye-like patterns or eyespots, which help confuse predators.

​Home and Habitat:
Lemon pansy butterflies and their caterpillars mainly live in the southern and southeastern countries of the Asian continent. They range from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka to Cambodia. They can be easily found in open fields of villages, wastelands full of weeds, forests and gardens next to houses. Like your picture, the caterpillars like to stay quite hidden under the grassy jungle or young leaves.

​Food:
After becoming a butterfly, they usually meet their nutritional needs by drinking the nectar of various wild flowers. But in this larval or caterpillar state, their diet is completely vegetarian. They mainly grow quickly by eating leaves of various plant families such as Acanthaceae, Malvaceae and Rubiaceae. Sometimes, when they sense danger while eating under the leaves, they curl up and fall directly to the ground.

​Reproduction:
The process of their reproduction begins with the female butterfly laying eggs. The mother butterfly carefully lays green eggs one by one on the underside of the leaf. These thorny black caterpillars are born when those eggs hatch. After the caterpillars eat enough leaves and grow, they choose a suitable place and turn into pupae or moths. The pupae look like dry or dead leaves, due to which predators do not find them easily. After a certain time, the beautiful winged lemon pansy butterfly breaks out of the shell.

​Benefits:
They play a very important role in the ecosystem of the environment. The full-fledged butterflies help in pollinating the plants while flying around the flowers, which plays a role in the production of crops and fruits. In addition, their eggs, caterpillars and pupae serve as food for various small birds, spiders and other predators in nature. As a result, the natural food chain of nature is maintained.

​Harmfulness:
The lemon pansy butterfly or its caterpillars do not have any direct harmful effects. Even though they eat the leaves of some wild plants in the crop field or garden, they never pose a serious pest or pest threat to farmers. Therefore, they are completely safe and harmless animals for the environment.

I hope you like the information.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	Mix
Photography	(Junonia lemonias)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

Link to original community
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/371268303

Latitude	Longitude	Map Link
24.3369	89.1161	https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=12/24.3369/89.1161