Cyrestis thyodamas

Cyrestis thyodamas indica Evans NYMPHALIDAE

(= cyrestis thyodamas thyodamas ( Boisduval ))

Adult

wings broad and semi transparent. Upperside pale white in male and pale yellow in female with black veins. FW with 4 slender, irregular transverse black lines. Costa yellowish brown at the base and greyish beyond. HW tailed and lobed with 3 slender transverse lines and 2 black bordered brown bands. Apex and tornal area and lobe rich yellowish brown with dark brown and black markings. Underside similar. Tornal lobe of HW yellowish brown with a central large roundblack spot. Wingspan 50-60mm.

Delicate, beautiful butterfly, appropriately called the map butterfly because of the map like markings and irregular outline. Often seen soaring backwards and forwards over mountain streams in richly wooded areas. Flies slowly with jerky flight, keeping the wings horizontally for longer period than any other Indian butterfly. Confined to the moist hilly forests of the Himalayas up to 2700 m and in the cool moist forests of the western ghats. Active from may to October in the Himalayas and all through the year elsewhere. Visits flowers of butterfly bush, horsechestnut, etc.

Larva

Spindle-shaped. Dark reddish brown with broad green lateral band from segments 7-13. head with a pair of outward, curved, brownish long horns. A long recurved dorsal horn on segment 6 and another on segment 12, curved forward.

Feeds on banyan, peepal, cluster fig, ficus nemoralis, ficus spp. Etc

Distribution

India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, china, Taiwan and japan.