Doleschallia bisaltide

This article is about the species. For the subfamily, see Charaxinae.

Autumnleaf
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Doleschallia
Species:	D. bisaltide
Binomial name
Doleschallia bisaltide (Cramer, 1777)

The Autumnleaf Doleschallia bisaltide is a nymphalid butterfly found in India, also found in Australia where known as Leafwing.

Description

Upperside View at Jairampur, Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Race malabarica, Fruhstorfer.— Males and females underside yellowish brown, paling anteriorly to rich golden yellow on the fore wing, shading anteriorly into dusky brown on the hind wing. Forewing: the apical half black, following a line from vein 12 opposite the Discocellulars, passing through apex of cell, obliquely across middle of interspace 3 and curving down to tornus ; a black spot near apex of cell coalescing with the inner margin of 1he black colour; a short, very oblique, broad golden-yellow band, broader in the female than in the male, from middle of costal margin to interspace 5; a spot beyond in line with it in interspace 4; two, sometimes three, minute, preapical white specks; the cilia fulvous, touched with white, anteriorly. Hind wing uniform ; the costal margin broadly as noted above, a subterminal narrow band and narrower terminal line posteriorly, dusky black; a postdiscal black spot in interspaces 2 and 5 respectively; the cilia fulvous. Underside very variable, closely resembling a dry leaf. No two specimens are ever alike. The ground-colour varies from reddish to dark greenish brown with irrorations of greyish and black scales; apex of the fore and the terminal margin posteriorly of the hind wing more or less lilacine; fore and hind wings crossed by a dark narrow discal fascia, generally bordered on the inner side by a greyish line; this fascia bent inwards at right angles above vein 6 of the forewing and in most specimens, bordered internally by a diffuse pale patch and externally by an oblique whitish mark, beyond which is a subcostal white spot, followed by a transverse sinuous postdiscal series of obscure ocelli crossing both wings, each ocellus centred by a minute dot, white on the fore, black on the hind wing. In the male there are generally, but not invariably, a number of whitish spots on the basal areas of both wings. Antennae blackish brown, ochraceous at apex ; head, thorax and abdomen dark fulvous brown; beneath, the palpi white, the thorax and abdomen pale brown.^[1]

Expanse 84–88 mm

Sikkim, S. India, Ceylon, Assam, Myanmar and Tenasserim.

Andamans form

Race andamanensis or andamana, Fruhstorfer (The Andamans), closely resembles the Indian form, but differs in the oblique yellow band on the upperside of the fore wing, which is broader and extends from the middle of the costal margin uninterruptedly to interspace 4, though it is preapically constricted. On the upperside of the hind wing there is an inner as well as an outer conspicuous subterminal narrow-black band. On the underside this race is as variable as the typical form, but the ground-colour in many specimens (presumably wet-season broods) is of a richer, almost metallic green, with the basal snow-white spots defined with black lines ; the ocelli in interspaces 2 and 5 seem also to be more clearly defined than in the Indian form. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in malabarica.^[1]

This race has been seen in the S. Andaman (Chidiyatapu), Car Nicobar, Central Nicobars and at Great Nicobar. They are attracted to the flowers of Ligustrum glomeratum and larvae have been discovered on Pseuderanthemum album (Acanthaceae).^[2]

Gallery

• 

  Autumn Leaf Butterfly (Singapore)

Larva

Black, with two rows of dorsal white spots. Head with a pair of branched spines; rest of the segments with a dorsal and a lateral row of blue branched spines on each side.

Pupa

Yellowish with numerous black spots; constricted in the middle; head produced into two points. (Described from figure in Jour. Bomb. N. H. Soc.)

External links

• Sri Lanka Wild Life Information Database

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Bingham, C. T. 1905. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Vol. 1
2. ^ Veenakumari, K. and Prashanth Mohanraj 1997. Rediscovery of Lethe europa tamuna with notes on other threatened butterflies from the Andamans and Nicobar Islands. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 51(3):273-275 PDF