Gray Pansy or Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites)

Gray Pansy or Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites)

Photo from Bishhazari taal, Chitwan, Nepal

Gray Pansy or Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites)

Fact sheet

Systematic position

Kingdom:  Animalia

Phylum:  Arthopoda

Subphylum:  Invetebrata

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

Genus: Junonia

Species: J.atlites

Binomial name: Junonia atlites  (Linnaeus, 1763)

Elevation: 400-4900 ft

Entire length: 33 cm

Wing Span: 50-60 cm

Season

January to December

Habitat:

Open country, often near water.

This species also varies with the season but not so marked.

The dry season underside is plain and the wet season form has small of ocelli.

Feature:

• Upperside of both sexes pale lavender-brown, apical half of wings paler. Fore wing: cell with, three transverse, short, sinuous black bands, the outermost defining the discocellulars; a similar short, somewhat broader band beyond apex of cell; two transverse discal dusky black fasciae, the inner highly sinuous and outward, angulate above vein 4, the outer straighter, somewhat lunular, bordered by a series of whitish ovals with dusky or black centres.

• Underside lilacine white markings as on the upperside but very delicate, slender and somewhat obsolescent. In the dry-season forms of the males the rows of oval ocelli are only indicated by the yellow-centred ovals. The most prominent marking is the inner discal fascia crossing the wings; this is much less sinuous than on the upperside and not angulated on the fore wing.

Common Sailer ( Neptis hylas)

Common Sailer ( Neptis hylas): 

Photo from Bashhajari taal, Chitwan National Park. Nepal

Heptis hylas
upper-side
underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Neptis
Species:	N. hylas
Binomial name
Neptis hylas (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Neptis varmona, Moore, 1872 Neptis eurynome (Westwood, 184

• Wingspan 43-57 mm
• Altitude: 450-10200 ft.
• Season: January to December,
• Very Common
• Habitat: Everywhere. It is cetrainly the commonest of the Sailers.
• Note that they are Sailer of the skies as distinct from Sailors of the seas.
• The clear distinction here is that the white bands on the under-side have clear black edging.
• Neptis hylas, sometimes known as the Common Sailer, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South Asia and Southeast Asia. 
• It has a characteristic stiff gliding flight achieved by short and shallow wingbeats just above the horizontal.
• Dry-season form
• Upperside black, with pure white markings. Fore wing discoidal streak clavate, apically truncate, subapically either notched or sometimes indistinctly divided; triangular spot beyond broad, well-defined, acute at apex, but not elongate ; discal series of spots separate, not connate, each about twice as long as broad; postdiscal transverse series of small spots incomplete, but some are always present. Hind wing: subbasal band of even or nearly oven width ; discal and subterminal pale lines obscure; postdiscal series of spots well separated, quadrate or subquadrate, very seldom narrow. Underside from pale golden ochraceous to dark ochraceous almost chocolate ; white markings as on the upperside, but broader and defined in black. Fore wing: interspaces 1 a and 1 from base to near the apex shaded with black, some narrow transverse white markings on either side of the transverse postdiscal series of small spots. Hind wing a streak of white on costal margin at base, a more slender white streak below it; the discal and subterminal pale lines of the upperside replaced by narrow white lines with still narrower margins of black. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black; the palpi, thorax and abdomen beneath dusky white.
• Wet-season form
• Differs only in the narrowness of the white markings and in the slightly darker ground-colour and broader black margins to the spots and bands on the underside.This species has been observed to make sounds whose function has not been established.
• Structure:
• Head larger than anterior segment, vertex with two short pointed spines, cheeks obtusely spined; third, fourth, sixth and twelfth segments armed with a subdorsal pair of stout fleshy spiny processes, those on the fourth segment longest. Colour pale green ; face, tip of processes and segments slightly washed with pale pinkish, a slight pinkish oblique lateral fascia from anal process ; a small, dark, lateral spot on sixth segment.
  
  

Cethosia biblis, common name Red Lacewing

Photo from Boston, Kritipur. Nepal

Red Lacewing
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Cethosia
Species:	C. biblis
Binomial name
Cethosia biblis (Drury, 1773)

• Cethosia biblis, common name Red Lacewing, is a species of heliconiine butterfly belonging to the Nymphalidae family.
• Cethosia biblis is medium-sized butterfly, with a wingspan reaching about 8–9 centimetres (3.1–3.5 in).
• In this species the sexes are dimorphic. 
• In males the dorsal sides of the wings are bright orange-red, framed by a black outline with white spots.
•  The undersides range from bright red to pale brown, interlaced by black and white. 
• This astonishing pattern helps to disguise the shape of the butterfly, while the intense colour of the dorsal sides of the wings is a warning to predators that the Red Lacewing has a bad taste, deriving from the poisonous host plants of the caterpillars.
•  The dorsal sides of the wings of the females are grayish-brownish with black spots and white bands and spots on the black margins.
• Caterpillars have several reddish, black and white stripes, a black head and long black spikes that contain poison. In fact they mainly feed on poisonous climbing plants, mainly Passiflora species (Passiflora cochinchinensis, Passiflora moluccana, etc.).
• This species can be found from India and Nepal, east to southern China and the Philippines, and south to Indonesia.

Spangle ( Papilio protenor ) from Panchase Forest, Nepal

Spangle 

Spangle
Female
Male
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Papilio
Species:	P. protenor
Binomial name
Papilio protenor Cramer, 1775

Male spangle

• Upperside: velvety indigo-blue black, duller on the fore wing than on the hind wing. Fore wing with pale adnervular streaks broadened along the terminal margin and extended well into the cell. Hind wing: a broad pale yellowish-white subcostal streak; interspaces 4 to 6 irrorated with bluish scales; tornal angle marked with red.
• Underside: fore wing dull black; adnervular streaks distinctly grey and much broader than on the upperside. Hind wing: ground-colour as on the upperside, a large irregularly-shaped patch at the tornal angle that extends into interspace 2. and subterminal lunules in interspaces, 2, 6, and 7 dull pinkish-red, cell irrorated more or less with a sprinkling of blue scales; the tornal patch with a black, outwardly blue-edged, round medial spot, and interspaces 4 and 5 with subterminal irrorations of blue scales. Antenna black; head, thorax and abdomen dark brownish black.

Female spangle

• Similar to male.
• Upperside: groundcolour deep brownish black; adnervular streaks on fore wing yellowish; irroration of blue scales on outer portions of hind wing more dense; no white subcostal streak; red patch at tornal angle large with an oval medial black spot; another similar black spot subterminally in interspace 2 posteriorly bordered by a crescent-shaped red mark.
• Underside similar to that in the male, differs in the adnervular streaks on the fore wing that are broader and paler; on the hind wing the tornal red patch is paler and larger, and is extended broadly anteriorly and outwards towards the termen into interspace 2; in the latter it coalesces with a broad subterminal black-centred red ocellus; the irroration of blue scales in interspace 5 with a small subterminal red lunule below it. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.

Plain Tiger (Danus genutia)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Tribe:	Danaini
Genus:	Danaus
Species:	D. genutia
Binomial name
Danaus genutia (Cramer, 1779)

• The Common Tiger (Danaus genutia) is one of the common butterflies of Nepal and India.
•  It belongs to the "Crows and Tigers", that is, the danainae group of the Brush-footed butterflies family. 
• The butterfly is also called Striped Tiger in India to differentiate it from the equally common Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus.
• Wingspan 55-80 mm.
• Altitude: 400-8700 ft.
• Season: January to December
• Very common. W,C,K,E
• Habitat: open country, flowers
• Looking rather similar to the Plain Tiger in flight
• For both this and the species Plain Tiger, the males have an extra lower discal spot on thee hind-wing, showing both above and below.
• The above photo is of a male.
• The butterfly closely resembles the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of the Americas. The wingspan is 75 to 95 mm.
•  Both sexes of the butterfly have tawny wings with veins marked with broad black bands. The female^{[verification needed]} has a pouch on the hindwing. The margins of the wings are black with two rows of white spots. The underside of the wings resembles the upperside but is paler in colouration. 
• The male Common Tiger has a prominent black-and-white spot on the underside of the hindwing. In drier regions the tawny part of the hindwing pales and approaches white in colour making it very similar to the White Tiger (D. melanippus).
• This butterfly occurs in scrub jungles, fallowland adjacent to habitation, dry and moist deciduous forests, preferring areas of moderate to heavy rainfall.
•  Also occurs in degraded hill slopes and ridges, both, bare or denuded, and, those covered with secondary growth.While it is a strong flier, it never flies rapidly or high. 
• It has stronger and faster strokes than the Plain Tiger. 
• The butterfly ranges forth in search of its host and nectar plants. 
• It visits gardens where it nectars on the flowers of Adelocaryum, Cosmos, Celosia, Lantana, Zinnia and similar flowers.
• This butterfly lays its egg singly under the leaves of any of its hostplants of family Asclepiadaceae. 
• The caterpillar is black and marked with bluish-white and yellow spots and lines. It has three pairs of tentacles on its body.
•  It first eats the eggshell and then proceeds to eat leaves and vegetative parts of the plant. 
• The chrysalis (pupa) is green and marked with golden yellow spots

Common Map From Panchase

 

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Cyrestis
Species:	C. thyodamas
Binomial name
Cyrestis thyodamas Boisduval, 1836

 

• This is common map which was taken from Panchase protected forest area of Nepal.

• Males and females upperside white, in many specimens pale ochraceous yellow, veins black.

•   Fore wing with four very slender irregularly sinuous transverse black lines, the costal margin shaded with ochraceous at base and fuscous beyond; cell crossed by three or four additional line short lines; a postdiscal very incomplete series of white-centred broad fuscous rings in the interspaces, tinged with ochraceous near the tornus and broadly interrupted in interspaces 3 and 4 ; beyond this two transverse black lines not reaching the dorsal margin, shaded with fuscous between; the apex broadly and the termen also shaded with fuscous. 
• Hind wing with three transverse fine lines; a pair of postdiscal broad black lines shaded with light sepia-brown between, forming a conspicuous band, the outer line broken and incomplete, followed by two irregular line black lines, a subterminal more pronounced black line, and posteriorly a narrow black terminal margin ; dorsal margin broadly fuscous at base; apical half and the tornal area and lobe rich ochraceous, with some sepia-brown and black markings.
•  Underside similar, the markings of the upperside showing through by transparency; the ochraceous shading on dorsum and tornal area on hind wing of less extent, but the tornal lobe darker ochraceous with a central large round black spot.
•  The markings both on upper and under sides vary a little in depth of colour and breadth. In many specimens there is a diffuse fuscous spot between the discal pair of transverse fine lines on fore wing. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen above black, thorax and abdomen with lateral greyish longitudinal stripes : beneath white. 
• Body of the female paler than that of the male.
• Race andamanica, Very closely resembles the typical form ; the dark markings, however, are as a rule heavier and more pronounced, but in this some specimens from the Anaimalai Hills approximate very closely to the lighter coloured Andaman individuals. 
• One constant point of difference, however, seems to be the large amount of rich ochraceous colour on the upperside of the hind wing posteriorly. 
• The costal margin and the postdiscal series of rings on the fore wing are also strongly tinged with ochraceous. Apparently common at Port Blair. 
•  Expanse 58–70 mm.
• Continental India generally, from the Himalayas to Travancore, in the hills, avoiding the hot dry plains of Northern and Central India; Assam;Manipur; Burma; Tenasserim ; extending to Nepal, China and Japan. A subspecies is present on Taiwan.