Spalgis epius

Apefly
Spalgis epius from Mangaon (Maharashtra, India)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Spalgis
Species: S. epius
Binomial name
Spalgis epius
(Westwood, 1851)
Synonyms
  • Geridus epeus Westwood, [1851]
  • Lucia epius
  • Spalgis nubilus Moore, [1884]
  • Lucia fangola Kheil, 1884
  • Spalgis titius Fruhstorfer, 1919
  • Lucia substrigata Snellen, 1878
  • Spalgis strigatus Semper, 1889
  • Spalgis georgi Fruhstorfer, 1919
  • Spalgis semperi Fruhstorfer, 1919
  • Lucia dilama Moore, 1878
  • Spalgis pharnus Felder, 1860

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.

Description

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.

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]

Life cycle

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]

Subspecies

Cited references

  1. ↑ Page on Marrku Savela's site for genus Spalgis (Lycaenidae).
  2. ↑ Bingham, C. T. (1907) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2.
  3. ↑ 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): 571-572 PDF
  4. ↑ Venkatesha, M. G. (2005) Why is homopterophagous butterfly, Spalgis epius (Westwood) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) amyrmecophilous? Current Science 89(2):245-246 PDF

See also

References

External links