Delias aruna

Golden Jezebel
D. a. inferna figs.3,4 (male), 5 female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Delias
Species:	D. aruna
Binomial name
Delias aruna (Boisduval, 1832) [1]
Synonyms
Pieris arunaBoisduval, 1832 Pieris bajuraBoisduval, 1832 Delias infernaButler, 1871 Delias aruna arovanaFruhstorfer, 1913

Delias aruna, the golden Jezebel, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Queensland, Irian Jaya, Maluku, Papua New Guinea and several surrounding islands.

Description

Sexually dimorphic.The male upper ground colour is yellow to orange.The forewing apex is black apex and there is a narrow black band marginal hindwing band.The female is black, with an orange basal area and obscure orange apical spots. The undersides of both sexes are dark brown. The male has a yellow forewing patch and a scarlet mark near the base of each hindwing. The female has arcs of yellow spots around the margin of the undersides of all wings. Both sexes have wingspans of c. 7 cms. D aruna is very variable across its large range.

Subspecies

• Delias aruna aruna (northern Moluccas, Waigeu, West Irian to northern New Guinea) light yellow basal region on the hindwing above.
• Delias aruna irmaFruhstorfer, 1907 ^[2] (Papua (Milne Bay)) the darkest known race; male beneath almost entirely black, also above with broader margins than inferna.
• Delias aruna infernaButler, 1871 ^[3] (Cape York to Coen) - orange Jezabel in the female above no yellow transverse spot at the discocellular of the forewing, which, however, appears again beneath. very similar to irma.
• Delias aruna ronaRothschild, 1898 ^[4] (Roon Island)
• Delias aruna seriata ^[5] ( Bachan, Obi, Halmahera, Kasiruta and Gebi islands).
• Delias aruna arovanaFruhstorfer, H. 1913 (Rossel and Sud-Est islands) ^[6]
• Delias aruna ranaSwinhoe, 1916 ^[7] (Ambon Island)
• Delias aruna sarera Yagishita, 1994 ^[8] (Manawi, Yapen Island)
• form madalaFruhstorfer, 1907 ^[9] (German New Guinea) Distal margin narrow, the ground-colour above orange, whilst on the under surface the red costal and discal spot are considerably larger and hence the black distal margin is reduced.
• form bajura (Waigeu) pale yellow basal part of the hindwing above;sharply defined and narrower white transverse spot before the cell of the forewing.

Biology

They fly singly, mostly met with in July in open woods. The butter¬ flies are fond of visiting the flowers of Syzygium jambos , on which they have been found even at elevations of 1000 ft.

Gallery

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References

1. Boisduval, J.B. 1832 Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du Roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le commandément de M. J. Dumont d'Urville. Faune entomologique de l'Océan Pacifique, avec l'illustration des insectes nouveaux recueillis pendant le voyage. Lépidoptères in d'Urville, 1 : 1-267, pl. 1-5
2. Fruhstorfer, H. 1907 Neue Rhopaloceren aus dem Papua-Gebiet Soc. Ent. 21 (23) : 179-180
3. Butler, A. G. 1871Lepidoptera Exotica, or descriptions and illustrations of exotic Lepidoptera
4. Rothschild, W. 1898 On some new or rare Lepidoptera of the Old-World regions Novit. Zool. 5 (1) : 96-102
5. Fruhstorfer, H. 1907 Fruhstorfer, 1909 Neues über Rhopaloceren Stettin ent. Ztg. 70 (2) : 209-238
6. Fruhstorfer,H. 1913 Neue indo-australische Rhopaloceren Ent. Rundschau 30 (16): 91-92
7. Swinhoe, C. 1916 New Species of Butterflies and Moths from Australia, Africa, and the Indo-Malayan Region Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) 18 (108)
8. Yagishita, A. 1994: Delias (2). Futao 17: 3–5
9. Fruhstorfer, H. 1907 Neue Rhopaloceren aus dem Papua-Gebiet Soc. Ent. 21 (23) : 179-180

External links

• Australian Insects
• The Life History of Delias aruna inferna