| Apefly | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Spalgis |
| Species: | S. epius |
| Binomial name | |
| 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.
Contents |
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.
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]
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]