''Tanaecia lepidea'', the grey count, is a species of nymphalid

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 ...

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 ...

Description

Upperside dark brown, paler in the female, with very obscure black markings of transverse lines across the cells of both forewings and hindwings and an oblique discal fascia on the forewing; an ash-grey continuous band along the termen of both forewings and hindwings, gradually broadening from the apex of the forewing, where it is very narrow, to the tornus of the hindwing, where it covers about one-third of the wing. In the female this band is outwardly narrowly bordered with brown. Cilia white. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown above; beneath, the antennae ochraceous, the rest dusky white washed with ochraceous. Underside: Male ochraceous brown, female bright ochraceous. In both sexes the colours paler on the hindwing; the forewing somewhat narrowly, the hindwing much more broadly suffused with lilacine-grey on the terminal margins and along the dorsal margin of the hindwing; cells of both wings with dark brown sinuous transverse lines and looplike markings; both forewings and hindwings crossed by somewhat diffuse broad discal and narrower postdiscal dark bands, prominent on the forewing, obscure on the hindwing. Male with a patch of specialized dark scales above vein 4 on the upperside of the hindwing.

Distribution

Found in the lower

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

eastwards from

Almora Almora ( Kumaoni: ') is a municipal corporation and a cantonment town in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Almora district. Almora is located on a ridge at the southern edge of the Kumaon Hills of the ...

. In the Western Ghats, central India,

Orissa Odisha (), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is a state located in Eastern India. It is the eighth-largest state by area, and the eleventh-largest by population, with over 41 million inhabitants. The state also has the thir ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

and into

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

. Found in forested habitats.

Life history

Larva. "Of the usual ''Euthalia'' form; colour green with a dorsal row of light red ocelli with blue centres; spines tipped with yellow." (Davidson & Aitken.) Pupa. "More narrowed at the head than ''E. garuda'', green, all the points golden tipped with black, and a few large spots of gold between." (Davidson & Aitken) Food plants include '' Melastoma malabathricum'' and '' Planchonia careya''.Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni and Luis M. Hernández HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants

Accessed October 2006 Grey Count (Tanaecia lepidea) caterpillar on Careya arborea W IMG 2387.jpg, caterpillar on ''

Careya arborea ''Careya arborea'' is a species of tree in the Lecythidaceae family, native to the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and Indochina. Its common English names include wild guava, Ceylon oak, patana oak. ''Careya arborea'' is a deciduous tree that g ...

'' Image:Grey_count_wynaad.jpg, Basking on sunlit leaves Grey count (Tanaecia lepidea lepidea) Pokhara.jpg, ''T. l. lepidea'',

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Grey Count, Tanaecia lepidea lepidea, Doyang Reserve, Nagaland.jpg, ''Doyang Reserve'',

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

Tanaecia lepidea MaDSC 2987.jpg , Museum specimen

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3595625 Tanaecia Butterflies described in 1868 Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by Arthur Gardiner Butler