Dark Pierrot

August 24, 2023

Tarucus ananda (de Nicéville, [1883])

Malayalam Name	:	ഇരുളൻ കോമാളി
Common Name	;	Dark Pierrot
Order	:	Lepidoptera
Super Family	:	Papilionoidae (Butterflies)
Family	:	Lycaenidae
Sub Family	:	Polyommatinae

DISTRIBUTION

Peninsular India

STATUS: Not common

HABITAT

They are found in semi-arid plains, degraded patches of evergreen patches, and semi-evergreen forest, gardens, hill stations and forests—in fact, wherever its food plant, Kalanchoe, is abundant.

HABITS

Tarucus ananda is associated with Crematogaster ants

IDENTIFICATION FEATURES

Small size Black and white butterfly with wingspan 30-35 mm.

Male
Upperside: dark purple, sometimes fuliginous, sometimes bright and shining. Forewings and hindwings margins ciliated brown: terminal margins edged with fuscous brownish black and an anteciliary jet-black line; cilia brown; tail black tipped with white. Underside: more or less dingy white.

Underside: Forewing: a broad oblique brownish-black band from base to just before the middle of the costa; from the latter a dark brownish-black bar proceeds vertically down to middle of interspace 3, on the inner side of this and touching it in the middle is a large brownish-black irregular spot that extends posteriorly to vein 1; beyond this a broad discal transverse brownish-black band twice interrupted, the posterior portion slightly narrowed below is shifted obliquely inwards and ends on vein 1; this is followed by a postdiscal transverse series of brownish-black spots that anteriorly nearly coalesces with the discal band, a transverse subterminal line of similar but smaller spots and a well-marked anteciliary black line. Hindwing: a basal short, brownish-black, anteriorly attenuate bar placed obliquely, a transverse subbasal band of four large coalescent black spots, a transverse curved discal band twice broken as on the forewing and similar postdiscal subterminal and terminal markings. Antennae black, shafts ringed with white, head, thorax and abdomen dark brownish black; beneath: the palpi black, thorax and abdomen down the middle white.
Female
Upperside: fuscous black. Forewings and hindwings: in most specimens the markings of the underside show (sometimes very conspicuously) through. Underside: as in the male. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male.
SIMILAR SPECIES Continental Common Pierrot

LARVAL HOST PLANTS