''Caleta'' is a genus of butterflies in the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterf ...

, mainly found in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

. The common name

Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''Pi ...

is used for some species.

Species

In his generic classification of the Polyommatini, Toshiya Hirowatari included nine species in ''Caleta'': *'' Caleta argola'' (Hewitson), 876/small> Philippine Islands *'' Caleta caleta'' (Hewitson), 876/small> *'' Caleta celebensis'' (Staudinger), 1889 *'' Caleta decidia'' (Hewitson), 876/small> *'' Caleta elna'' (Hewitson), 876/small> *'' Caleta manovus'' ( Fruhstorfer), 1918 Borneo *'' Caleta mindarus'' (C. & R. Felder),

865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. C ...

/small> New Guinea, New Britain *'' Caleta rhode'' (Hopffer), 1871 Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Buru, Banggai, Timor *'' Caleta roxus'' (Godart), 824/small>

Ecology

Recorded host plants include '' Ziziphus oenoplia'' (Rhamnaceae).

Taxonomy

The genus ''Caleta'' was erected by

Hans Fruhstorfer Hans Fruhstorfer (7 March 1866, in Passau, Germany – 9 April 1922, in Munich) was a German explorer, insect trader and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He collected and described new species of exotic butterflies, especially in ...

in 1922 in

Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for e ...

's ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' (The Macrolepidoptera of the World). Another genus-level name, ''Pycnophallium'', was erected by the Dutch

lepidopterist Lepidopterology ()) is a branch of entomology concerning the scientific study of moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies. Someone who studies in this field is a lepidopterist or, archaically, an aurelian. Origins Post-Renaissance, t ...

Lambertus Johannes Toxopeus in 1929. He included two Oriental species under this name: '' Pycnophallium roxus'' Godart and '' Pycnophallium elna'' Hewitson. These species had previously been treated as species in the genera ''

Lycaena ''Lycaena'' is a genus of butterflies. The genus range is Holarctic, with the exception of four species found in New Zealand, two in South Africa, one in New Guinea and one in Java. It is commonly divided into several subgenera, such as '' Antipo ...

'' or '' Castalius'' until

erected ''Caleta'' in 1922. Although ''Caleta'' in the wide sense has not been fully revised since Fruhstorfer erected it, Hirowatari, 1992,Hirowatari Toshiya
A Generic Classification of the Tribe Polyommatini of the Oriental and Australian Regions : Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Polyommatinae
/ref> made an authoritative classification of Oriental polyommatine genera. Hirowatari did not recognise ''Pycnophallium'' as a valid genus, but retained nine species, including ''roxus'' and ''elna'' in ''Caleta''.

References

External links

''Caleta''
at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera
Images representing ''Caleta''
at BOLD {{DEFAULTSORT:Caleta (Butterfly) Lycaenidae genera