Athyma selenophora

Taxobox | name = Staff Sergeant
status =

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Staff Sergeant photographed at Tadiandamol
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Nymphalidae
genus = "Athyma"
species = "A. selenophora"
binomial = "Athyma selenophora"
binomial_authority = (Kollar, 1844)
synonyms = "Pantoporia selenophora"
range_

range_map_width = 250px
range_map_caption =

The Staff Sergeant ("Athyma selenophora") is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in tropical and subtropical Asia.

Description

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*Male Upperside- black- Forewing: discoidal streak deep red, twice divided, the apical portion dusky white; three elongate oval white spots in the interspaces beyond; a distinct white band, variable in width, from dorsum to interspace 3; an obscure inner subterminal line of transverse whitish marks, and a still more obscure outer sub terminal pale line. Hind wing with the broad white discal band of the fore wing continued across to vein 1, a postdiscal narrow diffuse pale macular band, and a subterminal pale line; abdominal fold dusky grey ; cilia of both fore and hind wings black, alternated with white. Underside bright chestnut-red; the markings as on the upperside but all white, on the terminal portions of the wings diffuse; discoidal streak in fore wing white, diffuse, more broadly divided ; interspace 8 white at base, with a dark chestnut-red loop below it in interspace 7 crossing into the cellular area; very dark postdiscal blotches in interspaces 1a, 1 to 3 on fore wing; and a series of very dark chestnut-red marks between discal and postdiseal bands on the hind wing; dorsal margin of hind wing broadly blue, Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen very dark brown ; beneath, the palpi, thorax and abdomen white faintly tinged with blue.
*Female Upperside velvety brownish black with white and pale markings, Fore wing : the discoidal streak clavate, twice divided, a large elongate triangular spot beyond apex of cell; a macular discal band of four large spots inclined outwards from dorsum, and three obliquely placed spots from beyond the middle of the costa, the lowest spot of these minute, the next two large, elongate, with a very slender short streak above them on the costa; an inner subterminal series of transverse spots and an outer subterminal pale incomplete line. Hind wing ; the subbasal broad band widening towards costa; a postdiscal series of large, inwardly bluntly conical spots and a broad subterminal pale line- Underside as in the male, but the white markings broader, the ground-colour not so bright. Antennae, thorax and abdomen as in the male but the abdomen with a white transverse band at base.Bingham, C. T. (1905) Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1]

*Expanse: 66-72 mm

*Habitat: The Himalayas; Southern India, the Nilgiris, the Western Ghats; Assam, Myanmar and northern Tenasserim.

In the dry-season form the ground-colour in both sexes is brown, paler in the male than in the female; the discal band variable in width, but on the whole broader both on the upper and under sides, and the ground-colour on the underside ochraceous brown.

*Larva and pupa: Like that of "Athyma inara", Doubleday & Hewitson, but the dorsal patch is much smaller and there are some white spots on the sides. The pupa is distinguished from that of "A. inara" by slight differences in the shape of the grotesque processes on the head and thorax. The common food-plant is the "Adina cordifolia" (Davidson, Bell and Aitken)

References