Quaker
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Neopithecops
Species:
N. zalmora
Binomial name
Neopithecops zalmora
(Butler, [1870])

Neopithecops zalmora, the Quaker, is a small butterfly found in South Asia and Southeast Asia that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family.[1][2]

Subspecies

The subspecies of Neopithecops zalmora are-[1][2][3]

  • Neopithecops zalmora zalmora Butler, 1870 – north-east India, Myanmar
  • Neopithecops zalmora dharma Moore, 1881 – Sri Lanka, south India
  • Neopithecops zalmora andamanus Eliot & Kawazoé, 1983 – Andamans

Description

Mating pair
Wet-season form Narendrapur, near Kolkata, India

Wet-season form

Upperside of both sexes dark purplish brown; in the female slightly paler on the disc of the forewing. In most specimens, but not in all, the male also has the disc of the forewing similarly paler. Underside; white. Forewing: apex dusky brown, apices of veins 10, 11 and 12 with a minute black dot; no discal markings, but the discocellulars picked out with a short, very slender, obscure brown line; a postdiscal, irregular, transverse series of slender brown lunules, followed by a transverse, very slender, sinuous brown line, the white ground colour in the interspaces beyond centred by a subterminal series of transverse black spots.[4]

Hindwing: discocellulars with a short brown line similar to that on the forewing, followed by a subdorsal small round black spot, and a subcostal much larger similar spot; between these two spots is a curved, very irregular line of detached pale ashy-brown lunules; the subterminal markings very similar to those on the forewing. Cilia of forewing dusky brown, of hindwing white. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown; the antenna on the inner side speckled with white; beneath; the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.[4]

Dry-season form

Dry-season form at Narendrapur near Kolkata, West Bengal, India
From Wayanad

Differs from specimens of the wet-season brood as follows:

Upperside: ground colour not so dark generally. Forewing: a large oval snow-white spot placed obliquely on the disc. Hindwing: apex and disc irregularly white; on the posterior half the ground colour a shade darker than on the anterior half.[4]

Underside: ground colour and markings similar to those of specimens of the wet-season brood, but the markings very much paler and fainter; in specimens taken in the middle of the dry season in exceptionally dry localities these markings are altogether absent. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen on the upperside paler than in the wet-season brood.[4][5]

Distribution

India: Eastern Himalayas; Bengal: Orissa; Western Ghats; Sri Lanka; Assam; Myanmar; Tenasserim; the Andamans; extending into the Malay Peninsula.[4]

Food plants

Caterpillar

The larvae are known to feed on Diospyros (Ebenaceae) and many species of Glycosmis (Rutaceae) including G. arborea, G. parviflora and G. pentaphylla.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Varshney, R. K.; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. p. 138. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. 1 2 Savela, Markku. "Neopithecops zalmora (Butler, [1870])". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Neopithecops zalmora Butler, 1870 – Common Quaker". Butterflies of India. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Public Domain One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Bingham, C. T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Butterflies Volume II. London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd. pp. 309–310.
  5. ↑ Public Domain One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1905–1910). Lepidoptera Indica: Volume VII. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 230–231.
  6. ↑ Robinson, Gaden S.; Ackery, Phillip R.; Kitching, Ian J.; Beccaloni, George W.; Hernández, Luis M. (2010). "Search the database – introduction and help". HOSTS – A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London.
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