''Euploea alcathoe'', commonly known as the no-brand crow, Eichhorn's crow or striped black crow, is a common butterfly found 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 ...

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

, and in the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It belongs to the crows and tigers subfamily of the

Nymphalidae 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 ha ...

(brushfooted butterflies). The butterflies keep to within of the ground and they can be found in patches of sun underneath the forest canopy where they alight on

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

leaves and small twigs. The larvae feed on ''

Nerium ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the genus ...

indicum'', ''

Nerium oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the Monotypic taxon, only species currently classifi ...

'', ''

Mandevilla ''Mandevilla'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical flowering vines belonging to the family Apocynaceae. It was first described as a genus in 1840. A common name is rocktrumpet. ''Mandevilla'' species are native to the Southwestern United St ...

'', ''

Asclepias ''Asclepias'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to huma ...

'', '' Hoya australis'', '' Marsdenia australis'', '' Ficus platypoda'', '' Gymnanthera oblonga'' and '' Ficus obliqua'' in Australia. The larvae of the endangered Gove subspecies, ''Euploea alcathoe enastri'', also feed on the vines of '' Parsonsia alboflavescens'', and '' Vincetoxicum polyanthum'' (syn. ''Tylophora benthamii''). ''Euploea alcathoe'' adults are most common in the monsoonal wet season between December and May in Australia, and there may be several generations over the course of a year.

Subspecies

*''Euploea alcathoe alcathoe'' *''Euploea alcathoe eichhorni'' Staudinger, 1884 (Cape York to Ingham) *''Euploea alcathoe enastri'' (

Gove Peninsula The Gove Peninsula is at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The peninsula became strategically important during World War II when a Royal Australian Air Force base was constructed at what is now Gov ...

) *''Euploea alcathoe alecto'' Butler, 1866 (Buru, Ambon, Serang) *''Euploea alcathoe zodica'' Fruhstorfer, 1904 (Obi) *''Euploea alcathoe pierretii'' C. & R. Felder,

865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. Carloman receives Bavaria (with more l ...

/small> (West Irian) *''Euploea alcathoe macgregori'' Kirby, 1889 (D'Entrecasteaux Islands) *''Euploea alcathoe diadema'' Moore, 1883 (Papua, Goodenough) *''Euploea alcathoe coffea'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (eastern New Guinea, Karkar Island) *''Euploea alcathoe samaraina'' Carpenter, 1953 (south-eastern Papua New Guinea: Samarai Island) *''Euploea alcathoe monilifera'' (Moore, 1883) (Cape York, Thursday Island)

Conservation

The subspecies ''enastri'' of the

is classified as ''endangered''. Males have been collected from glades in rainforest and females from adjacent

paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

swampland. It is threatened by habitat destruction and degradation by water buffalo and feral pigs, and by invasion of its environment by the yellow crazy ant ('' Anoplolepis gracilipes'').

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2690647 Euploea Butterflies of Australia Butterflies described in 1819 Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Indonesia Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Godart Butterflies of Malaysia