Aemona amathusia

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Yellow dryad
Close wing of Aemona amathusia (Hewitson, 1867) - Yellow Dryad.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Aemona
Species:
A. amathusia
Binomial name
Aemona amathusia
(Hewitson, 1867)

Aemona amathusia, the yellow dryad, [1] is a butterfly found in Asia that belongs to the Morphinae subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies family.

Contents

Two geographical races of this have been discovered, namely amathusia Hew. from North India, probably first obtained from Bhutan, and more recently found in Assam. Hewitson's figure refers to the dry season form; male upper surface yellow with a red-brown longitudinal line beyond the cell, which crosses both wings, and with a dentate submarginal band on the hindwings. Under side with a small white ocellus in the anal angle of the forewing, and six tiny ocelli in the submarginal area of the hindwing. female with blackish apex and lighter ochre-yellow median area on the forewings, also broader red-brown longitudinal bands on the underside. — peali Wood-Mas.[ now species] considered by Doherty to be the wet season form, and he is probably right in this, for the rounder wings and more prominent eye-spots, which also show through above and are distinctly black centred, form the only differentiating characters, peali has hitherto been observed only in Upper Assam. Flies in September to December, whereas amathusia is known also from the Khasia-, Garo- and Naga Hills. oberthuri Stich. (described in Vol. I, p. 156 and there figured on PI. 49 e) is the rare west-Chinese local form and considerably darker than the Himalaya race. [2]

Distribution

In South Asia the yellow dryad ranges from Sikkim, Bhutan, Assam, Manipur onto northern Myanmar. [3] It also occurs in Vietnam and western China. [1]

A related species, the white dryad ( Aemona lena Atkinson), is found in South-East Asia.

Status

In 1932, William Harry Evans wrote that it was rare in its Indian range. [3]

Cited references

  1. 1 2 "Aemona Hewitson, 1868" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Seitz, A., 1912-1927. Die Indo-Australien Tagfalter. Theclinae, Poritiinae, Hesperiidae. Grossschmetterlinge Erde 9: 799-1107, pls. 138-175.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. 1 2 Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 131.