Taraka hamada

Taxobox
name = Forest Pierrot

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image_width =230px
image_caption =Upperside. Museum specimen. Malaya.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
superfamilia = Papilionoidea
familia = Lycaenidae
genus = "Taraka"
species = "T. hamada"
binomial = "Taraka hamada"
binomial_authority = (Herbert Druce 1875)

The Forest Pierrot ("Taraka hamada")Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no H9.1, pg 213 ] is a small butterfly found in India that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

Description

Upperside: uniform very pale brown, somewhat paler in the female, the black spots of the underside faintly apparent by transparency. Underside: white, with round black spots and markings as follows:— Fore wing: a spot at base of wing followed in transverse order by two spots, again two spots, then an irregular row of five spots that crosses near the apex of cell, the lower two coalescent, beyond that another curved row of five spots, two of which are in interspace 3, then a complete curved series of outwardly-pointed and a terminal series of inwardly-pointed similar spots. The spots of the last series cross a well-marked but very slender anticiliary black line, and thus cause the white cilia to the wing to be alternated with black. Hind wing: similarly crossed by five rows, all of which are more or less curved outwards, of black spots, followed by a slender uninterrupted anticiliary black line. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen brown, shafts of the antennae ringed with white, apex o£ club ochraceous ; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white. [Bingham, C. T. (1907) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2]

The butterfly shows two extreme forms in Sikkim, one extreme form which is almost completely black and the other having costa and outer margin black. The black spots from the underside are seen through the upper forewings of both sexes.Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim, ser no 111, pp 92-93.] .

Range

In India the butterfly occurs in India from Sikkim to Assam and onto Myanmar and south to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The butterfly occurs in west and central China, Yunnan, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and possibly Bali and Lombok.Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera [http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/miletinae/taraka/index.html| Page on "Taraka" genus.] ]

tatus

Not Rare in Sikkim from April to December.Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, pg 258.]

Habits

A weak flying butterfly which is found in forests at lower elevations.

References

General reading

* Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors). 2003. The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex [accessed 14 October 2006] .
* Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
* Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
* Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera [http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/index.html]
* Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

ee also

*List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)