A tiny cruiser

[Viscount]

Today, me and my tripod carrier was over at the Sentosa Butterfly Park.
What surprise me most was this cruiser
http://img40.photobucket.com/albums/v124/Lionking/Butterflies/Cruiser9.jpg

It was slightly larger than a striped albatross.
Compare to those guys at Sime, this guy is a midget.

How many instars does a cat have to go thru before reaching the chrysalis stage?
Four, five??
Is it possible that thru in-breeding, this guy could have miss one or possibly two instar stage?
There are already deformed markings on the left wing.

[Commander]

Sadly, that's the plight of many of the butts at SBP. They hatch in the pupa cage, and then sometimes fall off the perch before their wings properly dry out. Quite a number of them get damaged this way. Then the park staff have to catch them with their hands and set them free outside. In the process, more damage. :-(

BTW, this is a subspecies of the Cruiser which is found in Indonesia. There are bigger specimens than the one you shot.

In some cases, the butt pupates "prematurely" due to a variety of reasons - one being shortage of the host plant. The butt that emerges will be smaller than the norm. Whatever it is, they will go thru' all the instars, but due to "under-nourishment", is smaller than usual.