Horaga onyx

Common Onyx
Horaga onyx sardonyx Fruhstorfer, 1914. The Malaya subspecies.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Horaga
Species: H. onyx
Binomial name
Horaga onyx
(Moore, 1857).

The Common Onyx, Horaga onyx is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Asia.

Horaga onyx onyx Male left, female right

See also

Range

The butterfly mostly seen in India (Western Ghats, Maharashtra southwards), Himachal Pradesh to Arunachal Pradesh and also in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka.[1]

Status

Locally common.[1]

Larvae Foodplants

Coriaria nepalensis (Coriariaceae)[1]

Description

The butterfly has a wingspan of 27 to 33 mm. UP: For both sexes, blue with broad black apex, termen and costa. UN: The butterfly has dark yellowish or greenish brown with irregular and variable broad white discal band across their wings. UNF: Male - has a well defined brand along basal half of vein 1. UNH: well defined white band.[1]

Habit and Habitat

Found on thick hilly forests, never found on plains. Their flight is weak, prefers not to come out in the open, but does bask on leaves. In the north it flies up to 2,000 m on the hills when it is on the wing from March to May and in September to October.[1]

Cited references

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Isaac Kehimkar (2008) The Book of Indian Butterflies Bombay Natural History Society, Oxford University press, Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, September 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.