''Cupitha purreea'', commonly known as the wax dart,
[ is a ]butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
belonging to the family Hesperiidae
Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...
and only species of the genus ''Cupitha''.
Distribution
It is found from southern India and Sikkim to Burma, southern Yunnan, the Andamans, Thailand, Laos, Langkawi, Malaysia, Tioman, Borneo, Sumatra, Nias, Java, the Philippines and Sulawesi.
Description
Biology
Larvae are known to fed on '' Quisqualis indica'', ''Terminalia paniculata
''Terminalia paniculata'' is a tree native to southwest India (including the Western Ghats and Karnataka). Known in the timber trade as kindal, it has a variety of names in local languages.
It is economically important for wood, medicinal uses ...
'', ''Terminalia bellirica
''Terminalia bellirica'', known as baheda, bahera, behada, beleric or bastard myrobalan (Arabic: beliledj بليلج, borrowed from Middle Persian Balilag), Persian بلیله (Balileh), Sanskrit: Bibhitaka बिभीतक, Aksha is a large ...
'', '' Combretum ovalifolium'' and ''Ehretia
''Ehretia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It contains about 50 species.
The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770).
Species
Accepted species and other nota ...
''.[Vane-Wright, R.I, & de Jong, R. (2003). The butterflies of Sulawesi: annotated checklist for a critical island fauna. Zoologische Verhandelingen, 343, 3–267 https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/220217/ page 67]
References
Erionotini
Butterflies of Asia
Butterflies of Indochina
Monotypic butterfly genera
Hesperiidae genera
{{Erionotini-stub