Lemon Pansy

Lemon Pansy

Precis lemonias lemonias ( Linnaeus ) NYMPHALIDAE

Adult

Upperside dark brown or grayish brown. FW with black lines, yellowish brown spots and 2 red ocelli, the lower one larger and prominent. HW with a large apical red ocellus enclosing 2 minute white spots and smaller lower black spot. Underside yellowish brown in male , pinkish brown in female with several wavy lines and lower ocellus in the FW alone visible mostly. Wingspan 45-60mm.

The most common of the 6 pansies in India. Very bold butterfly with strong territorial and aggressive behaviour but not as much as the peacock pansy. Flies quickly and strongly but with less fluttering of wings. Generally rests on the ground but not so frequently as the other pansies and visits damp patches more often than the other of the genus. Like the chocolate pansy, more abundant in the forests and distributed throughtout south and central India, up to south Gujarat in the west and west Bengal in the east. In the Himalayas, seen up to 2700m from Kashmir up to assam. Besides Aztec Marigold, it visits flowers of Lantana, Bachelor’s Button, Lindley Butterfly bush, Ceylon Carissa, coreopsis tinctoria etc.

Larva

Spiny, pale grey with dark black dorsal lines, pale lateral lines and minute white spots, each segment with 8 orange, small branched spines.

Feeds on starthorn, broomjute side, jute, feullia prostrata, nelsonia canescens, N.campestris, Barleria prionitis, etc.

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Hongkong, Taiwan and the Philippines.