Parthenos sylvia
| Clipper | |
|---|---|
 | |
| P. s. virens, Sahyadri clipper | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Parthenos |
| Species: | P. sylvia |
| Binomial name | |
| Parthenos sylvia (Cramer, [1776]) | |
| Subspecies | |
|
Many, see text | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Parthenos sylvia, the clipper, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South and South-East Asia, mostly in forested areas. The clipper is a fast-flying butterfly and has a habit of flying with its wings flapping stiffly between the horizontal position and a few degrees below the horizontal. It may glide between spurts of flapping.
Description
Male and female. Upperside: ground colour a bright purple, the subhyaline (almost glass-like) white spots near the apex of cell in the forewing more opaque, the broad discal band of large white spots proportionately more basal further from the termen and very irregular, the spots, especially towards the hinder part of the wing, more widely separated, the spot in interspace 5 more acutely triangular and smaller, the two spots above shifted obliquely inwards towards the costa, making the outer margin of the discal band angulate at interspaces 5 and 6. Hindwing: the postdiscal and subterminal markings broader and more diffuse than in P. gambrisius, giving a dark shade to the whole of the apical half of the wing.
Underside pale greenish grey. Forewing: the spots and markings with the exception of the basal black streaks as on the upperside, the ground colour fading to an ashy grey towards the terminal margin. Hindwing similar to the underside of hindwing of P. gambrisius, but the discal transverse sinuous black line very broken and incomplete, the postdiscal, subterminal and terminal black markings somewhat better denned. Antennae black; head, thorax and abdomen bronze green, barred with black above; beneath whitish.[1]
Range
The species lives in the Western Ghats, Bangladesh, Assam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia (Malaya, Philippines, and New Guinea).
Life history
Larva. Cylindrical; head and anal segment with short simple spines; segments three to 12 with longer branched spines, reddish brown, those on three and four comparatively very long. Pale green, with yellowish-white lateral stripes one on each side.
Pupa. "brown, boat-shaped." (After Davidson & Aitken)
Subspecies
Listed alphabetically:[2]
- P. s. admiralia Rothschild, 1915
- P. s. apicalis Moore, 1878
- P. s. aruana Moore, [1897]
- P. s. bandana Fruhstorfer
- P. s. bellimontis Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. borneensis Staudinger, 1889
- P. s. brunnea Staudinger, 1888
- P. s. couppei Ribbe, 1898
- P. s. cyaneus Moore, 1877
- P. s. ellina Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. gambrisius (Fabricius, 1787)
- P. s. guineensis Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. joloensis Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. lilacinus Butler, 1879 – blue clipper
- P. s. nodrica (Boisduval, 1832)
- P. s. numita Fruhstorfer
- P. s. obiana Fruhstorfer, 1904
- P. s. pherekrates Fruhstorfer, 1904
- P. s. pherekides Fruhstorfer, 1904
- P. s. philippinensis Fruhstorfer, 1899 – brown clipper
- P. s. roepstorfii Moore, [1897]
- P. s. salentia (Hopffer, 1874)
- P. s. silvicola Fruhstorfer, 1897
- P. s. sulana Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. sumatrensis Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. sylla (Donovan, 1798)
- P. s. theriotes Fruhstorfer
- P. s. thesaurinus Grose-Smith, 1897
- P. s. thesaurus Mathew, 1887
- P. s. tualensis Fruhstorfer, 1899
- P. s. ugiensis Fruhstorfer
- P. s. virens Moore, 1877
Larva
Blue clipper
Race philippensis
Brown clipper
Ventral view
Races depicted in Seitz
Plate from Frederic Moore's The Lepidoptera of Ceylon depicting the imago, larva and pupa
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parthenos sylvia. |
- ↑ Bingham, C.T. (1905). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma Butterflies. 1 (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
- ↑ "Parthenos Hübner, [1819]" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms