Strabena butterfly - closeup, Marojejy, Madagascar

I figured the explicit look must make for an easy species search, but no match after a 30 min search so far. I think it may be from the Satyrini tribe, but that one is huge. Description: white underwings with 3 clear eyes each, with 2 in the bottom. Outside color of wings is brownish.

comments (6)

WildFlower

Lion

I spent much more time searching, but I couldn't find a match. It shouldn't be that hard :( Posted 9 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Weird huh? I checked every single species on this list:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_butterflies_of_Madagascar
  
  (although not all have a photo). I also submitted this to a determination group in Facebook, where I normally get responses easily, yet none for this one.
  
  Such a defined, explicit look, but nothing comes close. Thank you for putting in your time, if even you can't find something matching or closely matching, I know it's going to be a very difficult one. Posted 9 years ago
2. 1. WildFlower
    
    Lion
    
    Weird thing is that we have both missed this one. When I search Google images for Strabena only, I see the reference for this species, but when I searched for Strabena Madagascar, I didn't get it in the results. Posted 9 years ago
  2. 1. Ferdy Christant
      
      Lion
      
      That's how I usually search as well: family name (or genus) + country. Posted 9 years ago

RMFelix

Lion

I'm unaware of the phenotypical variability of the species in this genus, and their subsequent variations, but it appears to have similarities mostly with Strabena, whereby the best approach could be Strabena niveata?
http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=709273
http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_uncertain.doc

Hope it would help. By the way, beautiful capture! ;) Posted 9 years ago, modified 9 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  That is very impressive! Strabena niveata certainly looks like the closest match so far. That 2nd link is also very interesting, showing several species that seem related to this. Thanks! Posted 9 years ago