Curetis Thetis

''Curetis thetis'', the Indian sunbeam, Retrieved 20 April 2018.Markku Savela's website on Lepidopter

at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera is a species of lycaenid or red butterfly found in Indomalayan realm.

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.

Description

Male

Upperside dark cupreous red, glossy and shining. Forewing: base irrorated with dusky scales; costa edged with a narrow, inwardly jagged, jet-black band that broadens to the apex, thence continued along the termen, decreasing in width to the tornus; opposite the apex the inner edge of the black is acutely angulate. Hindwing: base and dorsum broadly but slightly irrorated (sprinkled) with dusky scales; costa narrowly, dorsal margin more broadly pale; termen very narrowly and evenly margined with black.

Underside: shining silvery white. Forewings and hindwings crossed transversely by discal and inner subterminal, somewhat lunular dark lines and a more or less obsolescent outer subterminal line of minute dark dots. These markings generally very indistinct but traceable; in some specimens more clearly defined but never prominent. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dusky black; the antennae reddish at apex; in some specimens the head, the thorax laterally and the base of the abdomen brownish-mouse colour; beneath: the palpi, thorax and the basal half of the abdomen medially silvery white, the sides and apex of the abdomen dusky black.

Female

Upperside: forewing dark brownish black; a large medial patch that extends from vein 1 to vein 4, enters the lower half of the cell and extends from base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the wing, white; at the base of the wing this patch is shaded and obscured for a short distance by dusky black. Hindwing: pale dusky black; a darker, short, broad brownish-black streak from base along the subcostal vein, that outwardly broadens into an irregularly round patch beyond which is a broad short upper discal white band with ill-defined and somewhat diffuse margins. Cilia, forewings and hindwings: white. Underside: as in the male but the markings still more indistinct, and in almost no specimen is there any trace of the outer subterminal line of dark dots.

Variety ''arcuata''

Variety ''arcuata'' Moore, differs from typical ''thetis'' as follows:

Male

Upperside: ground colour similar but of a slightly paler shade in all the specimens I have seen. Forewing: costal and terminal margins edged more broadly with black than in ''thetis'', the inner margin of this colour forms a regular strongly curved arch from base of wing to tornus, not angulate at all opposite apex of wing, the edging of the costal margin not jagged on the inner side. Hindwing: the costal margin not pale but somewhat broadly dusky black; the terminal black edging broader than in ''thetis'', not linear, produced for a very short distance up each vein. The irroration of dusky scales at the bases of both forewings and hindwings and along the dorsal area of the hindwing heavier and more broadly diffused, especially on the latter. Underside: as in the typical form. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar.

Female

Upperside: ground colour darker brownish black, deep opaque black on the costa, apex and termen of the forewing; the medial oval white patch on the forewing smaller, the upper discal white band on the hindwing narrower, the short, broad black streak from base terminates in a large round spot or patch inwardly merged in the ground colour which fills the whole area of the cell.

There have been reports of gynandromorphic forms.

Life history

Food plants

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

Larva

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.

Pupa

Light green; wing-cases bluish green. "There is a conspicuous heart-shaped pale ochreous mark on the top of the thorax, the pits on it filled in with reddish pigment." (de Nicéville.) The pupae are capable of producing sounds and the function of these are not fully understood.Downey, John C. 1966. "Sound Production in Pupae of Lycaenidae". ''Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society'' 20(3)

Gallery

File:Indian Sunbeam (Curetis thetis)- Male in Narshapur, AP W IMG 0801.jpg, Male in Narsapur, Medak district, India
File:Indian Sunbeam (Curetis thetis)- Male in Narshapur, AP W IMG 0793.jpg, Male in Narsapur, Medak district, India
File:Indian Sunbeam (Curetis thetis)- Male in Hyderabad, AP W IMG 0232.jpg, Male in Hyderabad, India
Image:Indian Sunbeam (Curetis thetis) in Hyderabad, AP W IMG 9945.jpg, Female in Hyderabad, India
File:(Curetis thetis) Indian Sunbeam along Eastern Ghats 03.jpg, Along the Eastern Ghats, Visakhapatnam, India
File:Indian Sunbeam Curetis thetis Female 4 UP Kalyan Maharashtra DSCF2139 (13).JPG
File:Indian Sunbeam Curetis thetis Egg Dombivali Maharashtra DSCF2363 (4).JPG
File:Indian Sunbeam Curetis thetis Karnala Wildlife Sanctuary Maharashtra DSCF4169 (1).JPG

See also

* List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

Cited references

References

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q5194712

thetis
Butterflies of Java
Butterflies described in 1773
Butterflies of Asia
Taxa named by Dru Drury