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''Melanitis zitenius'', the great evening brown, 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 found in Asia. The species is crepuscular
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnalit ...
.
Description
Wet-season form. Male and female: Forewing: costa strongly arched, apex acute; termen immediately below apex in male angulate, in female falcate (sickle shaped). Upperside resembles '' M. ismene'', but ground colour on the whole somewhat warmer brown, a very broad patch of ochraceous yellow, above and beyond the subapical black spots, larger in the female than in the male. Underside closely irrorated (sprinkled) with dark brown striae (lines); theocelli
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 ...
subequal, very much smaller and less clearly defined than in ''M. ismene''.
Dry-season form. Costa of forewing less strongly arched; apex in both sexes very falcate. From the wet-season form it differs in the greater amount of ochraceous yellow on the apex of forewing. This forms a very broad band passing from the costa above and beyond the subapical black spots, spreading below and encircling them except for a narrow band which joins the spots to a large black mark beyond apex of cell. Hindwing with two or three white subterminal spots posteriorly. Underside as in ''M. ismene'' but not quite so variable, the ocelli often entirely obsolete.
Food plants include ''Bambusa arundinacea
''Bambusa bambos'', (synonym Gigantichloa maxima) the giant thorny bamboo, Indian thorny bamboo, spiny bamboo, or thorny bamboo (but see '' Bambusa spinosa'') is a species of clumping bamboo native to southern Asia (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka ...
''.Kunte, K. (2006). Additions to known larval host plants of Indian butterflies. ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' 103(1):119-120.
References