''Leptosia nina'', the psyche, is a small

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 ...

of the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

(the sulphurs, yellows and whites) and is found in

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The upper forewing has a black spot on a mainly white background. The flight is weak and erratic and the body of the butterfly bobs up and down as it beats its wings. They fly low over the grass and the butterfly rarely leaves the ground level.

Description

From

Charles Thomas Bingham Charles Thomas Bingham (16 April 1848 – 18 October 1908) was an Irish military officer and entomologist. Bingham was born in India of an old Irish family, and he was educated in Ireland.Kirby, W.F , 1909 Obituary correction ''Entomologists mo ...

's ''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books t ...

. Butterflies. Vol 2.'' (1907) * Unpublished manuscript of

Lionel de Nicéville Charles Lionel Augustus de Nicéville (1852 in Bristol – 3 December 1901 in Calcutta from malaria) was a curator at the Indian Museum in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He studied the butterflies of the Indian Subcontinent and wrote a three volume mono ...

gives it the common name of "wandering snowflake" * Upperside: white; base of wings very slightly powdered with minute black scales. Forewing: costa speckled obscurely with black; apex black, the inner margin of this inwardly angulate; a very large somewhat pear-shaped post-discal spot also black. Hindwing white, uniform; in most specimens an obscure, extremely slender, terminal black line. * Underside: white; costal margin and apex of forewing broadly, and the whole surface of the hindwing irrorated (speckled) with transverse, very slender, greenish strigae and minute dots; these on the hindwing have a tendency to form sub-basal, medial and discal obliquely transverse obscure bands; forewing: the postdiscal black spot as on the upperside; terminal margins of both forewings and hindwings with minute black, short, transverse slender lines at the apices of the veins, that have a tendency to coalesce and form a terminal continuous line as on the upperside. Antennae dark brown spotted with white, head slightly brownish, thorax and abdomen white. Female: similar, the black markings on the upperside of the forewing on the whole slightly broader, but not invariably so. * Wingspan: 25–53 mm * Habitat: The lower ranges of the Himalayas from Mussoorie to Sikkim; Central, Western and Southern India, but not in the desert tracts; Sri Lanka; Assam; Burma and Tenasserim; extending to China and the Malayan region. * Larva: Green with a pale glaucous tinge about the bases of the legs and slightly hairy. Feeds on capers. ''

Capparis zeylanica ''Capparis zeylanica'' is a climbing shrub common in the forests of the Indian subcontinent, Indo-China, China and Malesia; no subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of Life. Several species of Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans i ...

'' has been noted as a food plant. *larva also feeds on leaves of Cardamine & Cleome species.Ehrlich, P.(1964).Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution. "Society for the Study of Evolution" 18(4):586-608 * Pupa: Sometimes green, but more often of a delicate pink shade. Both the larva and pupa are very like those of '' Terias hecabe'', but more delicately formed. (Davidson, Bell and Aitken quoted in Bingham)

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically: * ''L. n. aebutia'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Tanahdjampea, Kalao) * ''L. n. chlorographa'' Hübner,

813 Events By place Byzantine Empire * June 22 – Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars, led by Krum, ruler ('' khan'') of the Bulgarian Empire, defeat Emperor Michael I near Edirne (modern Turkey). The Byzantine army (26,000 men) is ...

/small> (Java) * ''L. n. comma'' Fruhstorfer, 1903 (Timor to Tanimbar) * ''L. n. dione'' (Wallace, 1867) (southern Sulawesi) * ''L. n. fumigata'' Fruhstorfer, 1903 (Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Solor) * ''L. n. georgi'' Fruhstorfer (northern Philippines) * ''L. n. malayana'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 (Peninsular Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, Bangka, Biliton) * ''L. n. nicobarica'' (Doherty, 1886) (Nicobars) * ''L. n. nina'' (India, Ceylon to Indo-China, Thailand, Langkawi, Andamans) * ''L. n. niobe'' (Wallace, 1866) (Taiwan) * ''L. n. terentia'' Fruhstorfer (southern Philippines)

Gallery

File:Psyche(Leptosia nina).jpg, In

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

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 ...

File:Psyche Leptosia nina mating retouched.jpg, Mating File:Psyche (Leptosia nina malayana) B.jpg, ''L. n. malayana'',

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 ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

File:Psyche Mid flight 1.jpg, Mid-flight,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

with a clear view of the forewing File:Psyche Mid flight 2.jpg, Mid-flight,

with a clear view of the forewing File:Leptosia xiphia.jpg File:Leptosia nina Psyche.JPG, In

Areekode Areekode is a town on the banks of the Chaliyar River in Areekode Grama Panchayat in Malappuram district, India. It was part of the Malabar District, Malabar district in British India. Areekode has an area of 7.25 square miles and is one of t ...

, Kerala, India

Notes

References

* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q599250 nina Butterflies of Java Butterflies described in 1793 Butterflies of Singapore Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Indochina Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius Lepidoptera of Malawi Lepidoptera of Taiwan Lepidoptera of Sumatra Lepidoptera of the Philippines

Description

Subspecies

Gallery

See also

Notes

References