Tapena thwaitesi

Black Angle
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Tapena
Species: T. thwaitesi
Binomial name
Tapena thwaitesi
(Moore, 1881)[1][2]

Tapena thwaitesi,[3] commonly known as the Black Angle, is a monotypic species of butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae.[4] The species name is after G. H. K. Thwaites, the Director of the Botanical Garden at Peradeniya, Sri Lanka between 1849 and 1880.

Description

Male has the upperside dark purple-brown, with blackish outer margins and indistinct discal transverse band of spots; forewing with two small translucent white spots on the costa near the apex. Underside dark purple-brown.

Female has the upper and underside greyish purple-brown, transverse band of spots and outer border dark purple-brown; forewing with three small semi-diaphanous white subapical spots, the lowest transversely narrow, two spots also at end of the cell, the upper one very slender, and two spots on the disc, each series being bordered by the dark band; hindwing with a semi-diaphanous spot at end of the cell.[5]

Photos

References

  1. Card for Tapena thwaitesi in LepIndex. Accessed 12 October 2007.
  2. Moore, Lep. Cey., vol. I, p. 181, pi. 67.
  3. Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera. Page on genus Tapena.
  4. TOL web page on genus Tapena thwaitesi
  5. Watson, E. Y. (1891) Hesperiidae indicae: being a reprint of descriptions of the Hesperiidae of India, Burma, and Ceylon. Vest and Co. Madras.