''Appias galene'', the Sri Lankan lesser albatross, is a species of

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.DeVries P. J. in Levi ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Description

Male has white dorsal surface with black patch towards margins of the forewing. This black patches are absent in dry season forms. Forewing apex and the hind wing lower surface are creamy, which become brighter in wet seasons. In female, there is a broad black band on margin of the dorsal surface of forewing. This band consists three white spots. On ventral surface, a broad black band found around the upper portion of the cell of forewing. Rarely in some forms, the ventral surface is yellow in color. Larval food plants are '' Drypetes sepiaria'' and '' Drypetes gardneri''.

Notes and references

Appias (butterfly) Butterflies of Sri Lanka Butterflies described in 1865 {{Pieridae-stub