''Libythea geoffroy'', the purple beak, is a butterfly found in parts of
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
and
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
that belongs to the subfamily
Libytheinae
The Libytheinae are a nymphalid subfamily known as snout butterflies, containing two valid genera and about ten species: six in ''Libythea'' and four in '' Libytheana''. The common name refers to the thick labial palps (pedipalps) that look like ...
of the family
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 have a re ...
.
Description
Race ''alompra'', Moore.
Male upperside is pale brown.
Forewing: the cell, basal two-thirds of interspaces 1a, 1, 2 and 3, and the extreme base of interspace 4 suffused with a beautiful pale violescent blue; a curved series of three subquadrate preapical white spots.
Hindwing: cell suffused with violescent blue extending faintly into interspaces 4, 5 and 6; a faintly-marked dull orange band below the lower apex of cell. Underside pale brown. If ore wing: apex grey, irrorated with minute dark spots; cell with a broad dull orange streak from base, followed by a violescent transverse spot in apex of cell; a large discal dull violescent spot in interspace 2 spreading slightly into interspace 3,. the curved series of three preapical spots as on the upperside but faintly dull violescent. Hindwing greyish brown, irrorated with dark spots and transverse dark striae and shaded with darker brown; the medial dull orange band replaced by a similar pale well-marked baud.
Antennae,
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
and
abdomen
The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the tors ...
pale brown;
thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...
darker brown with a little greenish pubescence posteriorly; beneath, the palpi, thorax and abdomen pale greyish brown.
Female upperside: forewing with the violet area duller and confined to the immediate base of the wing; a quadrate white spot at the end of the discoidal cell; a tripartite subcostal spot; another elongated spot from the third median to the upper discoidal