''Melanitis leda'', the common evening brown, is a common species of butterfly found flying at dusk. The flight of this species is erratic. They are found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

and

South-east Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia i ...

extending to parts of

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 ...

Description

Wet-season form: Forewing: apex subacute;

termen Termen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brig (district), Brig in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Termen is first mentioned in 1201 as ''Terman''. Geography Termen has an ar ...

slightly angulated just below apex, or straight. Upperside brown. Forewing with two large subapical black spots, each with a smaller spot outwardly of pure white inwardly bordered by a ferruginous interrupted lunule; costal margin narrowly pale. Hindwing with a dark, white-centred, fulvous-ringed ocellus subterminally in interspace two, and the apical

ocellus A simple eye or ocellus (sometimes called a pigment pit) is a form of eye or an optical arrangement which has a single lens without the sort of elaborate retina that occurs in most vertebrates. These eyes are called "simple" to distinguish the ...

, sometimes also others of the ocelli, on the underside, showing through. Underside paler, densely covered with transverse dark brown striae; a discal curved dark brown narrow band on forewing; a post-discal similar oblique band, followed by a series of ocelli: four on the forewing, that in interspace 8 the largest; six on the hindwing, the apical and subtornal the largest. Dry-season form: Forewing: apex obtuse and more or less falcate; termen posterior to falcation straight or sinuous. Upperside: ground colour similar to that in the wet-season form, the markings, especially the ferruginous lunules inwardly bordering the black sub-apical spots on forewing, larger, more extended below and above the black costa. Hindwing: the ocellus in interspace 2 absent, posteriorly replaced by three or four minute white subterminal spots. Underside varies in colour greatly. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen in both seasonal forms brown or greyish brown: the antennae annulated with white, ochraceous at apex.

Ecology

Resident butterflies are known to fight off visitors to the area during dusk hours. This chase behaviour is elicited even by pebbles thrown nearby. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s feed on a wide variety of

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es including rice (''

Oryza sativa ''Oryza sativa'', having the common name Asian cultivated rice, is the much more common of the two rice species cultivated as a cereal, the other species being ''Oryza glaberrima, O. glaberrima'', African rice. It was History of rice cultivation ...

''),

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

s, ''

Andropogon ''Andropogon'' (common names: beard grass, bluestem grass, broomsedge) is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family, native to much of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as Southern Europe and various oceanic islands. Over 100 speci ...

'', ''Rotboellia cochinchinensis'', ''Brachiaria mutica'', ''

Cynodon ''Cynodon'', from Ancient Greek κύων (''kúōn''), meaning "dog", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth", is a genus of plants in the grass family. It is native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World, as well as bei ...

'', ''

Imperata ''Imperata'' is a small but widespread genus of tropical and subtropical grasses, commonly known as satintails. Satintail grass species are perennial rhizomatous herbs with solid, erect stems and silky inflorescences. The best known species is ...

'', and millets such as ''

Oplismenus compositus ''Oplismenus compositus'', the running mountaingrass, is a species of perennial plant from the family Poaceae that can be found throughout Asia (Pakistan China), Africa, Australia, South America, Mexico and Hawaii. Description The plant is long ...

'', ''

Panicum ''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 250 species of Poaceae, grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, Annual plant, annual or P ...

'' and ''

Eleusine indica ''Eleusine indica'', the Indian goosegrass, yard-grass, goosegrass, wiregrass, or crowfootgrass, is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is a small annual grass distributed throughout the warmer areas of the world to about 50 degrees lati ...

''. Adults feed mainly on

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

, and in rare cases visit rotting fruits.

Image gallery

Melanitis leda – Common Evening Brown caterpillar 18.jpg, caterpillar Melanitis ismene ctb.jpg, Upperside pattern Common Evening Brown (Melanitis leda).JPG, Wet season Melanitis leda.jpg, Dry season Common evening brown (Melanitis leda ismene) dry season forms composite.jpg, ''M. l. ismene'' dry season forms, Nepal Open wing of eclosed Melanitis leda (Linnaeus, 1758) – Common Evening Brown.jpg

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2715925 leda Butterflies of Africa Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Oceania Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies of Australia Butterflies of Indonesia Butterflies of Malaysia Butterflies of Singapore Lepidoptera of Cape Verde Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Insect pests of millets