White Orange-tip

Ixias marianne (Cramer, [1779]) വെൺ ചെഞ്ചിറകൻ

Malayalam Name 

:

വെൺ ചെഞ്ചിറകൻ

Family 

:

Pieridae

Sub-family             

:

Pierinae

Tribe                     

: 

Leptociaini

Order

:

Lepidoptera


DISTRIBUTION
              South Asia and South EastAsia
STATUS:   Not common
HABITAT
 It is common in dry deciduous forests, scrub and fallow lands and found throughout the year.
HABITS
The characteristics of this species vary according to the season in which the eggs are laid
IDENTIFICATION  FEATURES
Small to medium size Yellow and white butterfly with wingspan 50-70 mm.  The species wingspan is between 50 and 55 mm.

Wet-season brood

The male has chalky-white wings with the apical half of the forewing and terminal margin of the hindwing broadly black. There is a broad, rich, orange patch obliquely across the black area extended to the upper apex of the forewing. 

The underside of the wing is a rich sulphur-yellow and is covered with reddish brown, short, transverse striations and minute dots. The forewing has an orange patch on the upperside which can be plainly seen because of the transparency on the wing, a broadly triangular area below this cell white, large and prominent discocellular spots with a white centre. Both forewings and hindwings have a discal transverse series of reddish-brown spots, more or less conspicuous, the spots always centred with white. In other species in the genus these is characteristic of the dry-season broods. On the forewing the patch above the tornus is prominent and in some specimens very large.

 The female is similar with the upper forewing having the orange patch on the black apical area narrower, posteriorly truncate and not extending so far down. There is also an outer transverse series of four black spots on the orange parch in interspaces 2 to 5. The underside is similar to that of the male but the markings are slightly larger.

Dry-season brood

In both sexes this differs less from the wet-season f The characteristic dry-season markings on the underside are more visible, on some occasions very much more 

SIMILAR SPECIES  Little (Small) Orange-Tip Colotis etrida
LARVAL HOST PLANTS
Capparis divaricata, C. sepiaria, C. zeylanica (Capparaceae).

LIFE CYCLE


MORE IMAGES

MALE












Courtesy 
Write up:Wikipaedia
Images: TNHS

കേരള വനം വന്യജീവി വകുപ്പ്  
മാങ്കുളം ഡിവിഷൻ

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