Bibasis harisa

"Orange awlet" redirects here. For the other moth with this common name, see Bibasis jaina.
Orange awlet
Male (top), female and male underwing
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Bibasis
Species: B. harisa
Binomial name
Bibasis harisa
(de Niceville, 1883)[1]
Synonyms

Ismene harisa de Niceville, 1883[1]
Burara harisa Vane-Wright & de Jong, 2003

Bibasis harisa, the orange awlet,[2] is a species of hesperid found in Asia. The butterfly was reassigned to genus Burara by Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) and is considered by them to be Burara harisa.[3]

Range

The orange awlet is found in India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Java, Singapore, Hong Kong and north Vietnam.[2]

In India, the butterfly is found along the Himalayas from Sikkim to Assam and eastwards to south Myanmar. It also has been recorded from the Andaman islands.[2][4]

The type locality is Bengal.[2]

Status

It is considered by William Harry Evans to be very rare in Hong Kong, rare in South India, but not rare in the Himalayas.[4]

Description

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The butterfly has a wingspan of 45 to 55 mm.[4]

Edward Yerbury Watson (1891) gives a detailed description:[5]

Male and female brown.

Male. Upperside dull vinaceous brown, palest on the disk; forewing with an orange yellow costal streak; hindwing broadly along anterior margin pale buff yellow. Body greyish. Cilia of hindwing orange yellow. Underside paler suffused with orange yellow; forewing with a curved series of pale purple narrow streaks between the veins before the apex, and a broad pale buff patch along the posterior margin; hindwing with the veins and lines between them and cilia orange yellow: a black orange yellow encircled basal spot on both wings; a discal series of pale purplish streaks. Third joint of palpi brown; palpi beneath, front and sides of thorax, legs and streak alongside of abdomen orange yellow; middle of thorax and abdomen and anal tuft orange yellow.

Female. Upperside dark purple brown; the base of wings greyish, with steel blue gloss. Body greyish. Cilia of hindwing pale orange yellow. Underside as in male; posterior margin of forewing with a less defined pale patch.

— Watson

Habits

This butterfly is crepuscular.[3]

Host plants

The larva has been recorded on Zingiber zerumbet (Zingiberaceae).[2]

Cited references

  1. 1 2 Card for Burara harisa in LepIndex. Accessed 16 October 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera Page on Bibasis genus.
  3. 1 2 Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) (see TOL web pages on genus Bibasis and genus Burara in the Tree of Life Web Project) state that Bibasis contains just three diurnal species, the crepuscular remainder having been removed to Burara. The species now shifted to Burara are morphologically and behaviorally distinct from Bibasis, within which many authors have formerly included them.
  4. 1 2 3 Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. pp. 318–319, ser no I 2.13.
  5. ↑ Watson, E. Y. (1891) Hesperiidae indicae.

References

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