My magazine june 2013 | Page 3

small plume of fine hairs that stay tucked under the overlap of the forewing most of the time . These become helpful in courtship .
Biology and Natural History
Costa Rica is crisscrossed by migrations of 64 species of glasswings . This species , Greta oto , is one of the most abundant ones and is spotted more often than some of its relatives . It can be found all year long , but month to month a population may fluctuate . An individual G . oto may travel as far as 12 km in a single day while it is migrating .
Diet
The host plants for Greta oto are two species of Cestrum . This glasswing ( like others ) also will feed on the droppings from birds that eat insects — by doing this , the glasswing gets amino acids into its diet .
Height / Weight
The average length of a glasswing butterfly is 28 to 30 mm .
Resource : http :// www . anywherecostarica . com / flora-fauna / invertebrates / glasswing-butterfly
Glasswing Taxonomy
Here is the full taxonomy of the glasswing , for anyone that might be interested : Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda Class : Insecta Order : Lepidoptera Family : Nymphalidae Genus : Greta
Species : Greta oto
RESOURCE : http :// www . squidoo . com / glasswing-thetransparent-butterfly
Butterfly Anatomy
1 - Head 2 - Thorax - legs & abdomen 3 - Wings - venation & scales 4 - Wing scales - scanning electron microscope images 5 - Hearing organs , flight , thermoregulation
2