Bibasis oedipodea - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bibasis oedipodea, or the Branded Orange Awlet, is a species of hesperid butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

found in South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. The butterfly has been reassigned to genus Burara vide Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) and is now known as Burara oedipodea.

Range

The Branded Orange Awlet is found in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, Malaysia, Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

In India

India

, the butterfly is found along the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

from Mussoorie

Mussoorie

Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...

to Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

.

The type locality is Java

Java

Description

See glossary
Glossary of Lepidopteran terms
This glossary describes the terms used in the formal descriptions of insect species, jargon used mostly by professionals or entomologist....

for terms used.

The butterfly has a wingspan of 40 to 50 mm for subspecies ataphus found in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

, and of 65 to 70mm in subspecies excellens found in Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

.

Watson (1891) gives a detailed description:

Male. Upperside ochreous olive brown ; forewing with an ochreous-red costal band which also extends across base of the cell ; a large black basal patch below the cell. Cilia of forewing pale brownish grey, of hindwing ochreous-red.

Female. It differs above only in the absence of the basal black patch, and beneath it in the less prominent white posterior marginal band. Underside ochreous-brown : forewing with a paler ochreous subapical and a marginal fascia, and a broad whitish posterior band : hindwing with bright ochreous red longitudinal streak between the veins, broadest between the median and submedian veins and abdominal margin ; a small black spot at the base above the costal vein. Thorax in front, head, palpi, body beneath, and legs ochreous-red ; terminal joint of palpi brown.

Host-plants

The larva have been recorded on Hiptage benghalensis
Hiptage benghalensis
Hiptage benghalensis, often simply called Hiptage, is a perennial, evergreen liana native to India, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Its habitat is variable and prefers climates ranging from warm temperate to tropical. In Hawai'i, where H. benghalensis is considered a weed, as it is in...

and Combretum latifolium.

Range

Description

Host-plants

See also

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