Burara amara

Small Green Awlet
Male (above), female (middle), male underside (lower)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Burara
Species: B. amara
Binomial name
Burara amara
(Moore, 1865)[1]
Synonyms

Ismene amara Moore 1865[1]
Bibasis amara

The Small Green Awlet (Burara amara[2]) is a species of hesperid butterfly found in Northeast India and Southeast Asia. The butterfly has now been reassigned to genus Burara vide Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) and is now Burara amara.[3]

Range

The Small Green Awlet ranges from India, (Sikkim eastwards through Assam), to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Hainan and South Yunnan. It is also found in the Andaman islands.[2]

The type locality is Northeast Bengal.[1]

Shot at Mt Harriet National Park Andamans

Status

Rare in the Himalayas. Very Rare in the Andamans.[4]

Description

See glossary for terms used.

The butterfly has a wingspan of 45 to 55 mm.[4]

Watson (1891) gives a detailed description:[5]

Male and female. Upperside brown with a greenish gloss ; costal streak of forewing ochreous yellow in the male, less prominent in the female ; male with a blackish subbasal patch. Cilia of both wings short and brownish white. Body dark brown ; abdomen with greyish segmental bands. Underside, forewing brown, becoming bluish black along the base of the costa ; posterior margin broadly brownish white ; hindwing bluish black ; veins of both wings brownish white, the space between them having a greyish blue parallel line running their entire length. Both wings also with the black ochreous-yellow-encirled basal spot. Thorax in front and beneath, head, palpi, legs, middle of abdomen, and anal tuft ochreous yellow. Femora and tibiae with a black spot ; sides of abdomen black, the segmental bands prominent, Cilia greyish.

Habits

Crepescular.[3]

Cited references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Card for Burara amara in LepIndex. Accessed 16 October 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera Page on Bibasis genus.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) (see TOL web pages on genus Bibasis and genus Burara in the Tree of Life Web Project) state that Bibasis contains just three diurnal species, the crepuscular remainder having been removed to Burara. The species now shifted to Burara are morphologically and behaviorally distinct from Bibasis, within which many authors have formerly included them.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no I 2.16, pg 319.
  5. ↑ Watson, E. Y. (1891) Hesperiidae indicae.

See also

References

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