''Burara gomata'', commonly known as the pale green awlet,Markku Savela's website on Lepidopter

/ref> is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

belonging to the family

Hesperiidae Skippers are a group of butterflies placed in the family Hesperiidae within the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea, but have since been placed in the superfamily Papilion ...

. It is found in

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

, the Western Ghats and parts of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. The butterfly was reassigned to genus ''

Burara ''Burara'' is a genus of skipper butterflies. Its species were previously considered part of ''Bibasis''. They were treated ''Burara'' by Vane-Wright and de Jong in 2003. Its species are crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one ...

'' by Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) and is considered by them to be ''Burara gomata'' (Moore, 1865).Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) (see TOL web pages o
genus ''Bibasis''
an
genus ''Burara''
in th
Tree of Life Web Project
state that ''Bibasis'' contains just three diurnal species, the crepuscular remainder having been removed to ''Burara''. The species now shifted to ''Burara'' are morphologically and behaviorally distinct from ''Bibasis'', within which many authors have formerly included them. This revised scheme was reflected by review of morphology in Chiba, 2009, and genomic data in Toussaint et al. 2020.

Range

The pale green awlet ranges from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, and the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n archipelago. In India, the butterfly is found in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

up to

North Kanara Uttara Kannada is a fifth largest district in the Indian state of Karnataka, It is bordered by the state of Goa and Belagavi districts to the north, Dharwad District and Haveri District to the east, Shivamogga District, and Udupi District to the ...

, and along the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

from

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and eastwards to Myanmar. The type locality is

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

in the north of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Status

This species is rare in South India but not rare in the Himalayas.

Description

The butterfly has a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm.

Edward Yerbury Watson Edward Yerbury Watson (27 July 1864 – 8 November 1897) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera most notably Hesperiidae. Yerbury Watson was born in British India to Joanna and George Edward Watson. He joined the North Lanca ...

(1891) gives a detailed description:

Life history

The adult butterfly is

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnalit ...

in activity. The larva has been recorded on '' Heptapleurum venulosum'', '' Heptapleurum wallichianum'', ''Embelia ribes'' var. ''ribes'', '' Heptapleurum luridum'', '' Heptapleurum heptaphyllum'', '' Trevesia sundaica'', and ''

Horsfieldia ''Horsfieldia'' is a genus of evergreen trees. The genus consists of about 100 species and is distributed across South Asia, from India to the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Some species are used for timber. Species in the genus sometimes con ...

'' species. File:Pale green awlet.jpg, alt=Pale green awlet, Picture taken at Gua Tempurung, Malaysia File:Pale green awlet Malaysia.jpg, alt=Pale green awlet, Picture taken at Gua Tempurung, Malaysia

References

External links