Immature stages and natural history of the butterfly Actinote brylla Oberthur (Heliconiinae: Acraeini)

The butterfly Actinote brylla was described by Oberthur in 1917; since then, no work describing the life cycle of the species has been officially published. This paper aimed to describe the life cycle of A. brylla. The early stages, larval host plant and oviposition behavior were described after the creation of individuals collected in the region of "Baixada Santista", the coast of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Actinote brylla uses Mikania lundiana as a host plant, with eggs being placed on the abaxial face of the leaf and ranging from 12 to 836 eggs in a cluster. Egg is barrel shaped with 18 to 22 longitudinal grooves and weakly marked horizontal ridges. Soon after laying, eggs are light white-yellowish gradually changing to red during the first 72 hours, ovules non-fecundated remains yellow. The caterpillars go through seven instars until pupation, the larvae are gregarious until the penultimate instar. The pupa is yellowish green in the early hours, after hardening, the coloring is cream with dark brown markings on wing cases and abdomen. The duration of all life cycle (egg to adult) ranged from 93 to 123 days.