Yellow-base Flitter/golden flitter

Quedara basiflava (de Nicéville, [1889])


Malayalam Name

:

സ്വർണ്ണ മരത്തുള്ളൻ

Order

:

Lepidoptera

Family

:

Hesperiidae

Sub-family

:

Hesperiinae

Sub species

:

Quedara basiflava

common names

:

Yellow-base Flitter/ Golden Flitter

DISTRIBUTION: Western Ghats of India

STATUS: Endemic to Western Ghats

IDENTIFICATION FEATURES

Male. Upperside dark glossy blackish-brown, almost black. Forewing with a short post-medial semi-hyaline, white, fairly broad band, composed of two semi-quadrate, rather long, conjugated spots, filling up the end of the cell, the lower spot the larger, a still larger semi-quadrate spot below extending to the first median nervule, only divided from the upper spots by the median vein, its outer end extending somewhat outwards. Hindwing without markings. Cilia of both wings brown. Underside almost as dark as the upperside. Forewing with markings similar. Hindwing with a chrome-yellow basal patch, varying in extent in different examples, in the type specimen the basal third of the wing is so coloured, in some examples from the Nilgiris the chrome-yellow basal patch is much more limited. Antennae black, without markings; palpi, head and body above and the legs concolorous with the wings, palpi and thorax below greyish, abdomen cinereous. Female like the male, the spots on the forewing a little larger.

SIMILAR SPECIES

LARVAL HOST PLANTS

Calamus hookerianus, Calamus pseudotenuis, Calamus rotang, Calamus thwaitesii (Arecaceae).

MORE IMAGES 










Courtesy 

Write up:Wikipaedia
Images: TNHS & iFoundbutterfly.org

കേരള വനം വന്യജീവി വകുപ്പ്  
മാങ്കുളം ഡിവിഷൻ


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