Great Orange Tip/Giant Orange Tip (Hebomoia glaucippe)

Largest Pieridae butterfly of the island with very fast flight. It often flies very high. Great Orange Tip occurs all over the country close to forest areas and in scrublands but much common in the dry lowlands up to about 100ft a.s.l. Larva feeds on Capparis mooni(රුදන්ති) in the hills and Capparis roxburghii(කලු ඉල්ලන්ගෙඩි), Crateva adansonii(ලුණුවරණ) and Capparis sepiaria(රිලා කටු) in the dry lowlands. Males settle on damp earth to absorb minerals. It is a migratory species and Ormiston mention about a flight of many thousands in November 1912 (“The largest flight I ever saw was in November, 1912. From south of Maho to Ambanpola, on the Northern line, the train passed for nearly half an hour through a swarm of many thousands” (Ormiston W., 1924))