''Stichophthalma nourmahal'' (the chocolate jungle queen),"''Stichophthalma'' C. & R. Felder, 1862"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' is a

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

that belongs to the

Morphinae The Morphinae are a subfamily of Nymphalidae butterflies that includes the morphos, the owl butterflies (''Caligo''), and related lineages. It is either considered a sister group of the Satyrinae, or disassembled and included therein. System ...

subfamily of the

brush-footed butterflies The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a redu ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Distribution

The chocolate jungle queen ranges from

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and also in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Status

Evans and Haribal report the butterfly as rare over its range.

Description

The male upperside is bright chocolate brown. Its forewing has a broad, curved, oblique preapical band from costa to termen. Its apex and termen are dark brown with a subterminal series of delicate, brown, trident-shaped marks. The hindwing hosts a yellow band along the terminal margin, bearing paired, lunular, brown marks in the interspaces. Its underside is dark ochraceous, paler towards the apex of the forewing, with transverse markings: subbasal and median dark brown sinuous lines, bordered, the former on the inside, the latter on the outside, by narrow bands of greenish blue; a discal series of obscure

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-l ...

, some of them pale spots; a postdiscal and a subterminal dark highly-sinuous line, the former ending in a black tornal spot outwardly margined with pink. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are chocolate brown above, ochraceous beneath. The female upperside is similar, with a preapical white spot on forewing. The underside has similar transverse markings. The ground colour up to the median black transverse line is chocolate-brown; beyond, the forewing from costa to vein 4 is light ochraceous, inwardly paling to white below vein 1; the hindwing is crossed by a diffuse dark brown band; ocelli as in the male, followed by a dull ochraceous-brown postdiscal area. The terminal margins are broadly brown, inwardly defined and crossed subterminally by sinuous dark lines. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are as in the male.

Cited references

References

* Amathusiini Butterflies of Asia {{Morphinae-stub