Baspa melampus

Baspa melampus, the Indian red flash[1] is a species of blue (Lycaenidae) butterfly found in South-East Asia.

Indian red flash
Male left, female right
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Baspa
Species:	B. melampus
Binomial name
Baspa melampus (Stoll, 1781)
Synonyms
Rapala melampus

Range

The butterfly occurs in Sri Lanka and in India from South India to Orissa, and, in the north from Murree to Kumaon.[2] The range extends to Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo and Bangka.[3]

Taxonomy

The butterfly was previously classified as Rapala melampus (Stoll, 1781).[2] It is also sometimes treated as a subspecies of Rapala iarbus.[3]

Status

In 1932, William Harry Evans described the species as not rare.[2]

See also

• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

Cited references

1. Beccaloni, G.; Scoble, M.; Kitching, I.; Simonsen, T.; Robinson, G.; Pitkin, B.; Hine, A.; Lyal, C., eds. (2003). "Rapala sorya". The Global Lepidoptera Names Index. Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
2. Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 299, ser no H85.16.
3. Rapala at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms

References

• Beccaloni, George; Scoble, Malcolm; Kitching, Ian; Simonsen, Thomas; Robinson, Gaden; Pitkin, Brian; Hine, Adrian; Lyal, Chris. "The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex)". Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
• Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
• Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation.
• "Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera".
• Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.