The Hungry Caterpillar

My neighbourhood has several Pongamia pinnata trees, commonly known as Pongamia or Honge mara. The presence of these trees keeps my neighbourhood cool and shady. In the months of January and February, when the tree is in leaf flush, it offers a pleasant sight for the residents. Three to four years back, a Pongamia sapling started germinating in front of my house, the seed was from a nearby tree. I allowed it to grow, hoping it would provide shade to my car underneath it. This year, the young tree had reached a good height but was not providing enough shade for the car, as the leaves were being eaten away by some insect. When my husband had to take the car out, he found there were tiny black balls and the insect all over the car. On closer look, he found hordes of caterpillars feeding voraciously on the young leaves in the tree and the tiny black balls were the caterpillars’ fecal matter. The voracious eating caterpillars reminded me of the popular children’s book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ by Eric Clare.

Caterpillars and their faecal matter.      

PC: Paramesha. M

A walk down the street revealed that the branches of other Pongamia trees were also invaded by the hungry caterpillars. We found that the caterpillars were of Common Banded Awl butterfly (Hasora chromus). Several times earlier, I had noticed the Banded Awl butterfly resting and moving around in the Pongamia tree.

Leafless branches of Pongamia.   
PC: Paramesha. M

Some of the neighbours were worried looking at the leafless branches and were also looking for options to spray pesticides. Well, there is nothing to worry about the caterpillars, as they are a part of the food web. Further, the trees will produce new leaves sooner or later.

Pongamia is a host plant for the caterpillar of Common Banded Awl butterfly. Host plants are plants on which the butterfly lays eggs, caterpillars feed on it and build pupa. Also, different butterfly species have different host plants.

Common Banded Awl butterfly
(https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2010/10/life-history-of-common-banded-awl.html?m=0)

Caterpillar and pupa of Common Banded Awl butterfly.
PC: Paramesha. M

Of the thousands of eggs laid by the butterflies, not all of them will make it to the adult stage. These caterpillars are food for crows, bulbuls, tits and other insectivorous birds. If we spray pesticides and get rid of the caterpillars, we will be disrupting the food web and insectivorous birds will be losing their food source. Nature has its way of maintaining ecological balance.

The happiest of the lot are the crows in my neighbourhood as they are feasting on the caterpillars for the last one week!!