Project butterfly Mankulam Division

Thoressa sitala  (de Nicéville, 1885) Mal ayalam Name : Order : Lepidopte ra Family : Hesperiidae Sub-family : Hesperiinae Sub species : Thoressa evershedi common names : Tamil Ace / Nilgiri Plain Ace DISTRIBUTION: South India STATUS : Endemic to Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats HABITAT:  .  HABITS IDENTIFICATION  FEATURES Male. Upperside blackish-brown, much the same colour as in H. sitala. Forewing with the spots similarly placed, but a little smaller. Cilia grey, with brown patches. Hindwing without markings, uniformly coloured. Cilia grey, without the patches. Underside. Forewing paler brown, the costal and apical areas suffused with ochreous-red, the spots as on the upperside. Hindwing ochreous-red, the abdominal half of the wing and the costa (narrowly) suffused with brown, the outer margin with a brownish macular band and with indications of some brownish discal spots. Antennae black, ringed with white, apical half of club orange-red, the lower half of the clu...

  Thoressa evershedi   (Evans, 1910)   Mal ayalam Name : Order : Lepidopte ra Family : Hesperiidae Sub-family : Hesperiinae Sub species : Thoressa evershedi common names : Evershed's Ace / Travancore Tawny Ace DISTRIBUTION: South India STATUS: Endemic to Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats HABITAT:  .  HABITS IDENTIFICATION  FEATURES Male. Upperside blackish-brown, much the same colour as in H. sitala. Forewing with the spots similarly placed, but a little smaller. Cilia grey, with brown patches. Hindwing without markings, uniformly coloured. Cilia grey, without the patches. Underside. Forewing paler brown, the costal and apical areas suffused with ochreous-red, the spots as on the upperside. Hindwing ochreous-red, the abdominal half of the wing and the costa (narrowly) suffused with brown, the outer margin with a brownish macular band and with indications of some brownish discal spots. Antennae black, ringed with white, apical half of club orange-red, the low...

  Sarangesa purendra pandra   Evans, 1949 Mal ayalam Name : പാറപ്പരപ്പൻ Order : Lepidopte ra Family : Hesperiidae Sub-family : Pyrginae Sub species : Sarangesa dasahara davidsoni  common names : Hill Spotted Small Flat DISTRIBUTION India STATUS: HABITAT:  .  The spotted small flat ( Sarangesa purendra ), though, is more common in the arid regions. It occurs in openings and edges in both the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, deciduous forests, and scrub & short grassland savannahs. It is found in the Deccan plains and also in the hills, but more frequently found at lower elevations. Except for the very dry north-west India, it occurs commonly throughout the country, in Sri Lanka and in the Indo-Chinese region HABITS IDENTIFICATION  FEATURES Upperside greyer than in S. dasahara, with paler mottled markings: fore wing with a semidiaphanous white continuous streak across the cell near its end, a continuous small spot above it, three small conjoined spo...

  Cigaritis meghamalaiensis (Sadasivan and Naicker, 2023) Malayalam Name : മേഘമല വെള്ളിവരയൻ Order : Lepidopte ra Family : Lycaenidae Sub-family : Aphnaeinae Sub species : No subspecies common names : Meghamalai Silverline DISTRIBUTION Western Ghats             STATUS: Recently discovered species. C. meghamalaiensis  has been described from the  Meghamalai  hills, in the southern part of the  Western Ghats . It is found to be common in the Meghamalai of Tamil Nadu and in the nearby  Periyar Tiger Reserve  of Kerala HABITAT:  Cloud forests of WG HABITS IDENTIFICATION  FEATURES Wing Span: 30-42 mm. Cigaritis meghamalaiensis  is distinguished from other species of the genus in peninsular South Asia, having the discal and postdiscal bands on the underside of the forewing being conjoined and parallel. It is also characterized by a continuous post-basal band on the underside of the hindwing, w...