Parantica aglea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Glassy Tiger
Parantica aglea melanoides female from Malaya
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Superfamily: Papilionoidea Family: Nymphalidae Subfamily: Danainae Genus: Parantica Species: P. aglea
Binomial name
Parantica aglea (Stoll, 1782)
Synonyms
Danais aglea

The Glassy Tiger (Parantica aglea) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Crows and Tigers, that is, the Danaid group of the Brush-footed butterflies family.

Contents 1 Description 1.1 Race aglea 1.2 Race melanoides 2 Distribution 3 Life history 3.1 Food-plant 3.2 Larva 3.3 Pupa 4 Range 5 Photo Gallery 6 References 7 See also

[edit] Description

Two races are recognized but neither form is constant either in markings or in habitat. In the British Museum collection there are specimens of true aglea from Burma, and others, inseparable from typical melanoides, from Mysore.

[edit] Race aglea

Ground-colour fuliginous black with subhyaline bluish-white streaks and spots. Fore wing: vein 11 anastomosed with vein 12.

Upperside: fore wing—interspace 1 with two comparatively long, broad streaks united at base, truncate exteriorly; cell with a very broad, somewhat clavate streak traversed by two fine black lines; basal spots in interspaces 2 and 3; an irregular discal series of three spots and two elongate streaks and a subterminal series of spots, the two series curved inwards opposite apex of wing, the latter continued along the apical half of the costa; finally a terminal row in pairs in the interspaces, of much smaller spots; Hind wing: interspaces la, lb with broad long streaks from base; interspace 1 and cell with two streaks united at base in each, the pair in the cell with a short streak obliquely between their apices, an outwardly radiating series of broad, elongate, inwardly pointed spots in interspaces 2-8, followed by somewhat irregular rows of subterminal and terminal spots. Underside similar, the markings and spots sometimes a little ill-defined and blurred.

Antennae black; head and thorax black spotted with white; abdomen blackish brown, ochraceous beneath. Male secondary sex-mark in form 2.^[1]

[edit] Race melanoides

Northern and Eastern form. Differs as follows:— Wings on the whole longer and narrower; hyaline markings, especially in interspace 1 of fore wing and in cells of both fore and hind wing, very much broader. In many specimens the black ground-colour in these spaces is reduced to a mere slender black line enclosed in the subhyaline marking. On the underside the streaks are often much blurred and diffuse.^[1]

Expanse: 70-100 mm.

[edit] Distribution

Race aglea: Sri Lanka, the Western Ghats north to Pune and the Niligiris. Race melanoides : The Himalayas from Kashmir to Nepal; Sylhet; Assam; Cachar; Chittagong ; Arrakan ; Burma and Tenasserim.^[1]

[edit] Life history

[edit] Food-plant

Tylophora carnosa.

[edit] Larva

Dark claret-brown, two round chrome-yellow spots on each segment, with scattered smaller bluish-white spots between, clustering into and forming a conspicuous line along the sides; legs and ventral surface purplish black, the tentacula, placed as usual on the 3rd and 12th segments, claret-brown.^[1]

[edit] Pupa

Green, spotted with blue and gold; much constricted behind the thorax.^[1]

[edit] Range

Western Ghats, Northeast India and Malay peninsula.

[edit] Photo Gallery

Race melanoides on Indian Turnsole Heliotropium indicum at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.

Race melanoides on Indian Turnsole Heliotropium indicum at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.

Glassy Blue Tiger PRA01.jpg Glassy Blue tiger at Edat, Near Payyanur, Kerala

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Bingham, C. T. (1905) Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1

[edit] See also

• Danainae
• Nymphalidae
• List of butterflies of India
• List of butterflies of India (Nymphalidae)