Pantoporia hordonia

Common Lascar
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Pantoporia
Species:	P. hordonia
Binomial name
Pantoporia hordonia (Stoll, 1790)
Synonyms
Rahinda hordonia

The Common Lascar (Pantoporia hordonia) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in tropical and subtropical Asia.

Description

See glossary for terms used

Wet-season form

Both male and female have upperside black with orange markings. Fore wing: discoidal streak broad, anteriorly twice indented, at apex extending into base of interspace 3; posterior discal spots coalescent, forming an irregular oblique short broad band ; anterior spots also coalescent, oblique from costa; a postdiscal obscure grey incurved transverse line, and a very slender, also obscure, orange transverse subterminal line. Hind wing: a subbasal transverse broad band, and a much narrower postdiscal band curved inwards at the ends; beyond this the black terminal margin is traversed by a darker black subterminal line. Underside chestnut-brown, covered with short, slender, transverse brown striae on the margin of the orange markings, which are similar to those on the upperside but broader, paler, and less clearly defined. Fore wing : the pale transverse postdiscal and orange subterminal lines of the upperside replaced by a postdiscal lilacine narrow band, defined by somewhat crenulate chestnut-brown lines on each side, and a pale subterminal line. Hind wing: the base suffused with lilacine; the subbasal and postdiscal bands bordered outwardly by narrow lilacine bands, the orange-yellow of the postdiscal band much obscured by the transverse brown strife; the terminal margin with a sinuous obscure broad lilacine line. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black; beneath, the palpi and thorax greyish, abdomen ochraceous.

In Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Dry-season form

Males and females are similar to the wet-season form, but the markings are very much broader; on the upperside of the fore wing the postdiscal line generally and the subterminal line always clearly defined, the former sometimes like the latter, orange-yellow, Underside paler, the markings more blurred, the transverse short brown striae in many specimens covering nearly the whole surface of the wings.

Expanse: 38–44 mm

Race sinuata Moore (restricted to Sri Lanka) is a slightly differentiated island form. It differs constantly from the typical form in the margins of the discal markings (especially the outer margins) on the upperside of the fore wing and the margins of the subbasal and postdiscal bands of the hind wing being more sinuous.^[1]

Distribution

Continental India, from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats; Assam; Burma; Tenasserim, extending into the Malayan sub-region.

Larva

"Has two forms. In the first the head is large and roughly triangular, the segments of the body increase to the fourth and then diminish gradually, and the third, fourth, sixth, and twelfth have each two obtuse dorsal points. The fore part from the fourth segment is generally inclined downwards at an angle with the rest of the body and is with the underpays of a dark greenish-brown colour. The rest is just that shade of greenish-grey which the leaves assume when withered, and is crossed by diagonal dark bands exactly representing the spaces between the leaflets as a painter would paint them – a most perfect disguise. The second form of the larva differs in having the head furcate, while the dorsal points are replaced by long spine-like processes. The figure will give a better idea of the difference than any description ... The butterfly resulting from the larva with spines has a light male-mark; that resulting from the other a dark male-mark ... The two forms of larva are never found together; the smooth type of caterpillar is often found in quantities on one bush ... the smooth caterpillar feeds on Acacia and Albizzia, the spined one has never been found on any plant but Acacia."(Davidson, Bell and Aitken)

References