Melanitis zitenius

Great Evening Brown
Taken in Cambodia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Melanitis
Species:	M. zitenius
Binomial name
Melanitis zitenius (Herbst, 1796)

The Great Evening Brown (Melanitis zitenius) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in Asia. The species is crepuscular.

Pinned specimen, Melanitis zitenius kalinga

Description

Wet-season form. Male and female: Forewing: costa strongly arched, apex acute; termen immediately below apex in male angulate, in female falcate. Upperside resembles M. ismene, but ground colour on the whole somewhat warmer brown, a very broad patch of ochraceous yellow, above and beyond the subapical black spots, larger in the female than in the male. Underside closely irrorated with dark brown striae; the ocelli subequal, very much smaller and less clearly defined than in M. ismene.

Dry-season form. Costa of forewing less strongly arched; apex in both sexes very falcate. From the wet-season form it differs in the greater amount of ochraceous yellow on the apex of forewing. This forms a very broad band passing from costa above and beyond the subapical blapk spots, spreading below and encircling them except for a narrow band which joins the spots to a large black mark beyond apex of cell. Hindwing with two or three white subterminal spots posteriorly. Underside as in M. ismene but not quite so variable, the ocelli often entirely obsolete.^[1]

Food plants include Bambusa arundinacea.^[2]

References

1. Bingham, C.T. (1905). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma Butterflies. 1 (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
2. Kunte, K. (2006). Additions to known larval host plants of Indian butterflies. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 103(1):119-120.