Bug FAQTawny Coster
Acraea terpsicore · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
The tawny coster is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of about 5 to 6 cm and a caterpillar about 2 cm long. It lives in grassland and scrub, staying close to the ground and often perching a metre or so above the soil. Its larvae feed on Loganiaceae, Passiflora and a few other plants, sequestering toxins from the host.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The upper side of the wings is tawny with black markings, including a transverse spot on the forewing and a series of black spots near the wing edges.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults have a wingspan ranging from 53 to 64 mm. Fully grown caterpillars measure about 21 mm in length.
Source: Wikipedia
Does it bite or sting?
When threatened, the butterfly may play dead and release a noxious yellowish fluid from leg-joint glands. Its tough exoskeleton allows it to survive pecks from birds or bites from lizards.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is common in grassland and scrub habitats. The butterfly stays within about 3 m of the ground and often rests on vegetation roughly a metre above the ground.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Caterpillars feed on plants in the Loganiaceae family and on Passiflora species, which contain toxins they store in their bodies. They have also been observed eating Hybanthus enneaspermus in Bengal and Turnera ulmifolia in Maharashtra.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Eggs are laid in clusters of 20 to 100, are yellow, slightly elongated, and show shallow transverse ribbing.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It was once confused with the African species Acraea eponina.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Questions people ask
What does the tawny coster look like?
Its upper wings are tawny with distinct black spots and a transverse black mark on the forewing.
Source: Wikipedia
Where can I find this butterfly?
It lives in grassland and scrub areas across South and Southeast Asia and has recently been seen in Australia.
Source: Wikipedia
Do they bite or sting?
When attacked they may play dead and exude a noxious yellowish fluid from leg-joint glands.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acraea_terpsicore
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.