Aglais ladakensis

Ladakh Tortoiseshell
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Tribe:	Nymphalini
Genus:	Aglais
Species:	A. ladakensis
Binomial name
Aglais ladakensis (Moore, 1878)
Synonyms
Vanessa ladakensis (Moore, 1878)[1] Nymphalis ladakensis[1]

The Ladakh Tortoiseshell (Aglais ladakensis) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in Asia.

Description

Male and female

Differs from Aglais kaschmirensis with the forewing termen convex and not falcate and not produced between veins 5 and 6. Upperside colours and markings similar to and disposed as in Aglais rizana but the lower blackish discal spot or patch in fore wing much broader, extended to the median vein joining the transverse band across the cell, joined also by a triangular patch at base of interspace 3 to the short band beyond the discocellulars; two small rounded spots in interspaces 2 and 3 respectively placed on a yellow band, as in N. rizana. Hind wing with the sub-terminal series of conical black spots larger, each centered with a large spot of blue.

Underside much paler than in either Aglais kaschmirensis not so thickly studded with dark transverse short striae. Fore wing: the cell with an ochraceous subbasal and a whitish median transverse broad band; beyond apex of cell a curved, broad, whitish, irregular, postdiscal band from costa to dorsum, and a short oblique preapical whitish mark.

Hindwing basal two-thirds dusky brown, outwardly margined by a sinuous jet-black line; both fore and hind wings with the transverse series of triangular dark marks of the upperside showing through.

Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in Aglais kaschmirensis.^[2]

Wing expanse of 46–53 mm.

Distribution

Northern Himalayan ranges, Ladakh, Tibet, Chitral; Nilang Pass beyond Mussoorie; Sikkim, Chumbi valley.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera [1].
2. ^ Bingham, C. T. 1905. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Vol. 1.