Indian sunbeam

Appearance

For a key to the terms used, see :Glossary of entomology terms.

Distribution

The butterfly occurs in Peninsular India, south of the Himalayas, but not in the desert tracts or in areas with a scanty rainfall; parts of Assam; Saurashtra; Bengal, Sylhet onto Myanmar. It is also found in the Nicobar Islands.

It is also found in Sri Lanka, Java, Philippines, northern Sulawesi and Selajar.

Status

It is not considered rare.

Reproduction

On emergence eats a hole through the top of the egg about equalling one-third of its surface and crawls out. The empty shell has a close superficial resemblance to an echinus shell. In colour pale ochreous, furnished with long stout white hairs of which a subdorsal series is on each side, with one long hair springing from the apex of each tubercle; there are, besides, other lateral series and numerous hairs projecting forwards in front of the head and backwards over the anal segment. The full-grown larva is the most beautiful known to me among the Lycaenidae.....of the exact shade of green of the leaves on which it feeds..... The second segment is quite unmarked; the third to the thirteenth have a subdorsal series of short oblique pale yellowish-green lines between which the ground-colour is paler than the rest of the body; there is a dark green dorsal line; on each side of the ninth segment there is a prominent pure dead-white, somewhat diamond-shaped mark.— de Nicéville
De Niceville goes on to say that the sheaths of the tentacles on the twelfth segment are pale green, the tentacles themselves maroon, the whorl of hairs at their apices white with their basal thirds black.

The larvae have tentacular organs as seen on myrmecophilous lycaenids, but they have not been observed to be tended by ants.

Food

The larva has been recorded as feeding on ''Pongamia glabra'', ''Derris scandens'', ''Abrus precatorius'' , ''Xylia dolabriformis'' and ''Heynia trijuga'' .