| Palni bushbrown | |
|---|---|
| | |
| as illustrated in Lepidoptera Indica | |
| | |
| from Kerala | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Heteropsis |
| Species: | H. davisoni |
| Binomial name | |
| Heteropsis davisoni (Moore, [1891]) | |
| Synonyms | |
Heteropsis davisoni, the Palni bushbrown, [5] is a species of satyrine butterfly found in southern India. [6] [2] Some authors consider this as a subspecies of Heteropsis mamerta [6] or Mycalesis malsara [7] or Mycalesis lepcha . [8]
Male. Upperside dark olivescent ochreous-brown, Both wings with a faint trace of the discal transverse band of the underside seen from above; cilia whitish and distinctly alternated with black at end of the veins. Fore-wing with a small black spot between the middle and lower median veins. Hind-wing with two small black spots, of which the upper one is between the upper and middle medians and the other between the middle and lower medians; submarginal lunular lines pale, indistinct, the intervening line and the extreme marginal line of both wings being blackish.
Underside darker, purpurescent in tint; basal area with numerous indistinct black strigae. Both wings with a prominent sharply-defined white transverse discal baud, the outer edge of which is blackish; marginal lunular lines ochreous. Fore-wing with six ocelli on a purple-brown ground-colour, of which the four upper are minute and the third and fourth incomplete; the fifth (between the middle and lower median) moderately large, the sixth minute, and the whole encompassed by the ordinary pale violet-grey line. Hind-wing with seven ocelli, on a purple-brown ground-colour, of which the three middle ones are somewhat pointed externally, and the third, fourth, and seventh the smallest. Male with a small patch of black scales on underside of the fore-wing, and a similar patch on the upper-side of hind-wing overlapped by a sub-basal tuft of brown hairs.
Body dark brown; palpi and legs paler; edges of palpi ochreous. Antennas bright ochreous towards the end, with the tip black.
— Moore, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. I, [1]