Colotis vestalis
| White Arab | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Pieridae |
| Genus: | Colotis |
| Species: | C. vestalis |
| Binomial name | |
| Colotis vestalis (Butler, 1876) | |
| Synonyms | |
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The White Arab, Colotis vestalis is a small butterfly of the Family Pieridae, that is, the Yellows and Whites, which is found in India, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania.[1] It has a wing expanse of 4–5 cm.
Description
Wet-season brood
The male has a white ground colour on the upperside, and the fore and hind wings have broad terminal black bands. The fore wing base, costal margin broadly and discoidal cell except at its lower apical area are heavily irrorated with dusky-grey scales with a short streak at upper apex of cell joined to a large spot on the discocellulars, black ; superposed on the black terminal area are two small preapical spots and a much larger subterminal spot in interspace 3, all of the white ground-colour ; minute white terminal specks also, often more or less obsolescent, in the interspaces. Hind wing more uniform, very slightly irrorated with grey scales at base, the black terminal band immaculate. Underside : greenish yellow sparsely sprinkled with black scales, the yellow very pale on the disc of the fore wing, fading to white along its dorsal margin ; discocellular spot and three subterminal posterior spots, that are placed in a curve, black ; the lowest spot of the three sometimes extended to the dorsal margin (var. puellaris). Hind wing : uniform, with a very small annular spot on the discocellulars. Cilia white. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black, the antennae speckled and tipped with white, the thorax clothed with long bluish-grey hairs ; beneath : palpi, thorax and abdomen white.[2]
The female upperside is very similar to that of the male, with her terminal bands broader and brownish rather than black. The female's underside base and cellular area on fore wing white are suffused with greenish yellow, while the costa and apex of fore and the whole surface of the hind wing are pale ochraceous. The fore wing has black spots as in the male, while the hind wing in a few specimens has an anterior, discal, somewhat obscure, macular, incomplete band. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are the same as in the male.[2]
Dry-season brood
Similar to the wet-season brood, but on the upperside the black markings are duller in tint and narrower, while on the underside in both sexes the costal and apical areas on the fore and the whole surface of the hind wing vary from pale ochraceous to dark reddish ochraceous.[2]
var peelus, Swinhoe, has the ground-colour on the upperside pale canary-yellow.
Distribution
Recorded from Baluchistan ; the Punjab ; Western India ; Kutch; Rajasthan; Sindh ; Madhya Pradesh. Found also in the provinces round the Persian Gulf.[2]
Subspecies
- Colotis vestalis vestalis
- Colotis vestalis castalis (Staudinger, 1884) (Somalia, southern Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, north-eastern Tanzania)
- Colotis vestalis nadir Gross & Ebert, 1975