Spalgis epius
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| Apefly | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Spalgis epius (Westwood, 1851) |
The Apefly (Spalgis epius) is a small butterfly found in Asia that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.[1] It gets its name from the supposed resemblance of its caterpillar to the face of an ape.
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[edit] Description
[edit] Male
Upperside: dull brown, slightly darker towards the apex of the fore wing; also a more or less quadrate whitish spot beyond the apex of the cell on the same wing; in some specimens this spot is slightly diffuse. Underside : pale, silky, brownish-white; fore and hind wings crossed by numerous, very slender, short, sinuous, transverse, dark brown strigae which are outwardly slenderly edged with brownish-white of a shade paler than that of the ground-colour; both wings with an anticiliary dark brown line with on the inner side a similar edging. Fore wing, in addition, with an oval white spot beyond the cell. Cilia of both fore and hind wings of the same shade as the ground-colour of the wings. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen pale brown, club of antennae ochraceous at apex; beneath : the palpi and thorax brownish-grey, abdomen pale brown.
[edit] Female
Upperside: slightly paler brown. Fore wing: the cell and apex darker; a white spot similar to that in the male but larger, beyond the apex of the cell; in most specimens extended diffusely outwards and downwards. Hind wing: similar to that of the male. Underside: precisely as in the male.[2]
 Apefly with part of upper forewing visible |
 Apefly from Salugara forest, North Bengal |
 Apefly from Wayanad perched upside down on a twig |
 Upperside. Museum specimen. Malaya. |
[edit] Life cycle
 Headon view of pupa showing the ape face resemblance |
 Side view of pupa |
The caterpillars of this butterfly like other members of the subfamily Miletinae are entomophagous and are predators of scale insects.[3] The species unlike many other lycaenid butterflies is not myrmecophilous.[4]
[edit] Cited references
- ^ Page on Marrku Savela's site for genus Spalgis (Lycaenidae).
- ^ Bingham, C. T. (1907) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2.
- ^ Venkatesha, M. G., L. Shashikumar, S.S.Gayathri Devi (2004) Protective devices of the carnivorous butterfly, Spalgis epius (Westwood) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) Current Science 87(5): 571-572PDF
- ^ Venkatesha, M. G. (2005) Why is homopterophagous butterfly, Spalgis epius (Westwood) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) amyrmecophilous? Current Science 89(2):245-246 PDF
[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.
- 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
- Asahi Correctly determined photos of Spalgis epius
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