''Euthalia lubentina'', the gaudy baron, is a species of

nymphalid 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 ...

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 ...

found in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, and

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 ...

. It was first described by

Pieter Cramer Pieter Cramer (21 May 1721 (baptized) – 28 September 1776) was a wealthy Netherlands, Dutch merchant in linen and Spanish wool, remembered as an entomologist. Cramer was the director of the Zealand Society, a scientific society located in Flushin ...

in 1777.

Description

Male. Upperside dark greenish brown. Forewing: a bar across middle and a bar beyond the apex of the cell crimson bordered with black: a slightly oblique transverse discal series of small white spots from costa to interspace 1, followed by a preapical curved row of four similar spots and a transverse subterminal series of elongate black spots forming an obscure band. Hindwing: a crescent-shaped black loop near apex of the cell area; a curved postdiscal series of four or five crimson spots outwardly bordered with black, the subcostal spot the largest, followed by a subterminal series of velvety-black subquadrate spots, the anterior three and the tornal spot outwardly crimson. Underside dark purplish brown suffused slightly with ochraceous, the markings as on the upperside but larger and more clearly defined, and in addition: forewing: two small black spots at base; basal half of costal margin crimson; hindwing: four crimson spots bordered with black at base; costal and dorsal margins crimson; another spot in the postdiscal series; the velvety-black spotting of the upperside more or less obsolete. Antennae dark brown, club beneath crimson; head, thorax and abdomen dark greenish brown; beneath, the palpi and the forelegs crimson, the rest pale brown. Female. Similar, paler. Upperside forewing: the transverse crimson bands in cell obscure with a broad black-bordered white band interposed, the discal series of white spots very large, very irregular in shape. Hindwing: the ground colour suffused with greenish blue on terminal posterior half of wing; markings similar to those of the male. Underside brown, the tornal half of the hindwing bluish green. Forewing: the markings as on the upperside with the addition of two small black spots at base and an obscure broad terminal pale band. Hindwing with four black-bordered transverse crimson spots at base in addition to the markings as on the upperside. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but paler; the palpi beneath with a stripe of pink, the forelegs whitish.

Distribution

The lower foot-hills of the Himalayas from Haridwar to

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 ...

, but recorded from Mussooree, at ; Oudh; Bengal; eastward through Bhutan, Assam, Cachar to Myanmar, Teuasserim, Siam, Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. On continental India southward from Bombay.

Life history

Egg

Its egg is reddish brown.

Larva

Armed with ten pairs of long, horizontally projected, very delicately branched spines. Colour grass green with a dorsal row of large purplish-brown angulated spots each with or without a small pure white diamond spot in its middle, these dorsal spots placed on the anterior half of the 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th segments; the lateral spines green tipped with purple brown.

Pupa

Green, but with two lateral brown marks, each with a dirty-white centre and two brown points equally with whitish centres between these and the terminating projection.

Gallery

Image:Euthalia lubentina egg.JPG, Egg Image:Euthalia lubentina caterpillar.JPG, Caterpillar GaudyBaron.JPG, Euthalia lubentina 3189.JPG, Gaudy_Baron_Euthalia_lubentina_Male_Yeoor_DSCF0502_%2810%29._Sanjay_Gandhi_National_Park,_Thane,_Maharashtra,_India..JPG Open wing position of Male Euthalia lubentina Cramer, 1777 – Gaudy Baron WLB.jpg, Open wing position of a male found in Chandannagar, West Bengal, India

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q565545 L Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies of Sri Lanka Lepidoptera of Bangladesh Lepidoptera of Myanmar Butterflies described in 1777 Taxa named by Pieter Cramer