Zipaetis saitis

Zipaetis saitis, the Tamil catseye,[1][2] is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South India.[1][2]

Tamil catseye
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Zipaetis
Species:
Z. saitis
Binomial name
Zipaetis saitis
Hewitson, 1863

Description

Upperside in fresh specimens velvet black, or brown to light brown in the female. Forewing with a broad, oblique, snow-white band from middle of costa to near apex of interspace 1, inwardly emarginate in its lower third. Hindwing with a similar broad white postdiscal band parallel to the posterior two-thirds of the terminal margin, the outer margin of the band emarginate between the veins. Underside similar, ground colour paler; the white bands as on the upperside; both forewings and hindwings with a subterminal sinuous pale line. Hindwing with a row of five ocelli enclosed in a common silvery narrow band, on the inner side of the white band; each ocellus with a white centre, an inner ring of ochraceous, and an outer ring of blackish brown; the ocelli at the each end of the row the smallest, the preapical very large and bi-pupilled. Antennae ochraceous red; head, thorax and abdomen dark brown.[3][4]

Expanse: 64–74 mm. (2.55-2.9 inches).

Habitat: Southern India; the Nilgiris, Anaimalai Hills, Kochi and Travancore.

References
  1. R.K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. pp. 180–176. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. "Zipaetis Hewitson, 1863" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Bingham, Charles Thomas (1905). Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1. p. 105.
  4. Moore, Frederic (1893). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. II. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 108–109.


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