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Insect

Mottled Emigrant

Catopsilia pyranthe

Mottled Emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Mottled Emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Todaraisingh, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Catopsilia pyranthe
Family
Pieridae, order Lepidoptera
Group
Insect

A pale butterfly with a mottled underside.

  • Spot it Greenish-white wings with faint brown mottling below.
  • Home Open scrub, fields and gardens.
  • Food web Caterpillars eat cassia and senna leaves; adults visit flowers.
  • Why it matters Pollinates flowers while feeding, and its caterpillars pass energy from senna plants to birds and lizards.

Read more: Catopsilia pyranthe on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 5 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2019 and 2024, in Jaipur, Todaraisingh and Shahabad.[20]
  • RajasthanHis note on one photo reads “Mottled Emigrant ,Catopsilia pyranthe laying egg on Gmelina asiatica”.[20]

Sources

  1. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  2. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  3. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  4. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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