Stichophthalma nourmahal

Stichophthalma nourmahal (the chocolate jungle queen),[1] is a South Asian butterfly that belongs to the Morphinae subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies family.

Chocolate jungle queen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nymphalidae
Genus:
Stichophthalma
Species:
S. nourmahal
Binomial name
Stichophthalma nourmahal
(Westwood, 1851)

Distribution
Figure 18

The chocolate jungle queen ranges from Sikkim, Assam and Nagaland in India and also in Bhutan.[1][2]

Status

Evans and Haribal report the butterfly as rare over its range.[2][3]

Description
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The male upperside is bright chocolate brown. Its forewing has a broad, curved, oblique preapical band from costa to termen. Its apex and termen are dark brown with a subterminal series of delicate, brown, trident-shaped marks. The hindwing hosts a yellow band along the terminal margin, bearing paired, lunular, brown marks in the interspaces. Its underside is dark ochraceous, paler towards the apex of the forewing, with transverse markings: subbasal and median dark brown sinuous lines, bordered, the former on the inside, the latter on the outside, by narrow bands of greenish blue; a discal series of obscure ocelli, some of them pale spots; a postdiscal and a subterminal dark highly-sinuous line, the former ending in a black tornal spot outwardly margined with pink. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are chocolate brown above, ochraceous beneath.

The female upperside is similar, with a preapical white spot on forewing. The underside has similar transverse markings. The ground colour up to the median black transverse line is chocolate-brown; beyond, the forewing from costa to vein 4 is light ochraceous, inwardly paling to white below vein 1; the hindwing is crossed by a diffuse dark brown band; ocelli as in the male, followed by a dull ochraceous-brown postdiscal area. The terminal margins are broadly brown, inwardly defined and crossed subterminally by sinuous dark lines. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are as in the male.[4]

Cited references
  1. "Stichophthalma C. & R. Felder, 1862" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. pp. 132–133.
  3. Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation. p. 128.
  4. Bingham, C.T. (1905). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma Butterflies. 1 (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
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References


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