Lethe drypetis
| Tamil Treebrown | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Female (Peravoor) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Lethe |
| Species: | L. drypetis |
| Binomial name | |
| Lethe drypetis (Hewitson, 1863) | |
The Tamil Treebrown Lethe drypetis is a species of Satyrinae butterfly found in India and Sri Lanka.
Description
Male upperside very dark vandyke-brown; fore wing uniform: hind wing with a postdiscal series of three or four blind black ocellar spots. Underside, brown; fore wing below vein 2 and terminal margin paler, a broad band across the cell, the wing medially and at apex suffused with lilac, bearing an incurved postdiscal series of five, blind black ocelli. Hind wing : subbasal and discal narrow transverse lilac bands, the former sinuous, the latter angulated on vein 4, and an arched postdiscal series of black fulvous-ringed ocelli, some with disintegrate centres; the wing medially suffused with lilac, the ocelli with lilacine lunules on both sides. Fore and hind wings with slender lilacine subterminal and broader ochraceous terminal lines.
Female similar, groundcolour paler; a broad oblique white discal bar and two white preapical spots on the upperside of the fore wing; a large, rectangular, black subterminal mark in interspaces and a white spot above and below it, on the upperside of the hind wing. Underside similar to the underside in the male, all the markings more prominent, the lilac, ochraceous and brown shades paler; the broad discal bar on fore wing, as on the upperside, joined by a nearly vertical lilacine white band bearing the series of ocelli.[1]
On the hind wing the brown transverse discal band very broadly produced between veins 4 and 5. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen brown ; antennae ochraceous at apex.
Wing expanse 64–68 mm.
Found in Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Life history
Larva. "Fusiform; head conical, the vertex pointed and projected forward, anal segment pointed and projected hind ward. Colour pale green, with paler transverse lines on each segment; a lateral and a sublateral pale-bordered reddish stripe extending the whole length including the anal segment. Feeds on bamboo." (After Frederic Moore)[1]
Pupa. "Suspended by the tail, broad and truncated anteriorly, abdominal segments dorsally convex, head and vertex both pointed; colour pale green." (After Moore)[1]
References
- 1 2 3 Bingham, C. T. 1905. The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Butterflies. Volume 1.