Libythea lepita
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It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled Libythea lepita and Libythea celtis. (Discuss) |
| Common Beak | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Libythea lepita Moore, 1857 |
The Common Beak (Libythea lepita) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Libytheinae group of the Brush-footed butterflies family.
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[edit] Description
- See glossary for terms used
The species was earlier considered a race of Libythea celtis (European Beak). The following description is based on the older treatment and the race lepita and lepitoides described below refer to this species.[1]
The larval food plants of the species include members of the Ulmaceae particularly in the genus Celtis.[2]
[edit] Race celtis
Upperside is rich silky brown. Fore wing has the cell filled with a broad orange-yellow streak which is subapically deeply indented above; a small discal orange-yellow spot present in interspace 1; a much larger, similarly coloured discal spot between veins 2 and 4, on the inner side touching the cell between veins 3 and 4; a subcostal white preapical spot and a quadrate double spot in interspaces 4 and 5, placed obliquely forward to the subcostal spot; this spot whitish above, orange below. Hind wing uniform, with an irregular curved, transverse, upper postdiscal orange patch extending from just below vein 3 to interspace 6, the portion in interspace 6 often detached. Underside ground-colour : fore wing brown, apex pale purplish irrorated with minute dark transverse striae and dots, orange markings as on the upperside but paler; hind wing uniform pale purplish irrorated with minute dark dots and transverse striae. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown ; beneath, palpi, thorax and abdomen concolorous with the tint of the underside of the hind wing.
Southern Europe; Asia Minor. Also in Chitral.
[edit] Race lepita, Moore
Differs from celtis as follows : Upperside ground-colour a slightly darker brown. Fore wing : orange-yellow streak in cell much narrower for two-thirds of its length from base, then abruptly expanded anteriorly so as to fill the apex of the cell, the inner margin of the apical portion and the anterior margin of the basal portion forming a clearly defined right angle ; lower discal spot absent, upper larger discal spot somewhat diamond-shaped; subcostal spot and preapical spot placed obliquely outwards from it more distinctly double, the lower portion of the subapical spot orange-yellow, the upper portion and the subcostal spot white. Hind wing: the upper postdiscal orange patch narrower, forming a short band which is no1 curved but placed obliquely transverse, reaching from vein 2 to vein 6, sometimes but rarely with a detached orange spot above it in interspace 0. Underside : ground-colour variable, generally vinous-brown, paler along the costal and dorsal margins of the fore wing; sometimes dark brown on the fore wing, dark greyish on the hind wing, with the costal margin broadly of the fore and the whole of the hind wing irrorated with minute dark striae and spots. Orange and white markings on the fore wing as on the up per side, but the preapical double spot entirely white. The hind wing is more variable; in some specimens it is uniform without any markings, in others it is shaded transversely light and dark, and in a few specimens the wing is longitudinally divided by a dark-brown diffuse band from base along the median vein to apex of vein 5. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in L. celtis.
The Himalayas, Simla to Sikkim, Assam, Upper Myanmar extending to China and Japan.
[edit] Race lepitoides, Moore
Differs from lepita as follows :—
Hind wing: tornus narrowly produced, dentate or even, subcaudate. Upperside: ground-colour darker brown. Fore wing: the orange-yellow streak in cell divided from the spot in the apex of the cell, the large discal spot smaller, the subcostal and subapieal spots more distinctly double, the latter pure white. Hind wing: the transverse short band narrower and more horizontal; a diffuse quadrate pale spot in the middle of interspace 7, larger in the female than in the male. Underside fore wing: ground-colour dark brown, the apex, the termen narrowly and slightly, and the dorsal margin somewhat broadly touched with grey, irrorated with minute dark dots and transverse strise; the orange-yellow and white markings as on the upperside, the former broader and fuller, the cellular streak not interrupted. Hind wing pale grey, shaded broadly at base, on the disc and posteriorly, with brown, the pale grey ground-colour prominently replacing the transverse orange streak and pale subcostal spot of the upperside. In some specimens there is a very dark brown shading from base of the wing along the median vein. The entire surface of the wing is irrorated with minute dots and transverse short striae. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in celtis.
Southern India ; Ceylon.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
- Gaonkar, Harish (1996) Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
- Gay,Thomas; Kehimkar,Isaac & Punetha,J.C.(1992) Common Butterflies of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
- Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
- Kunte,Krushnamegh (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
- Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.
