Ideopsis vulgaris

Subspecies include:Yutaka Inayoshi [http://yutaka.it-n.jp/dan/30160010.html Butterflies in Indo-China]

• Ideopsis vulgaris contigua Talbot, 1939 – (Central Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Hainan, China)
• Ideopsis vulgaris macrina (Fruhstorfer, 1904) – Myanmar, P. Thailand, Langkawi, W. Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Batu Islands, Banka Island, Belitung)

This species can be found in India, SriLanka, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Hainan, South Burma - Sundaland, Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands - Alor, Borneo – Palawan.

These butterflies inhabits a range of habitats, but especially occur at the edge of rainforest or plantations and in the coastal mangrove areas.Muller, C.J. & Tennent, W.J. 2011 [http://iucnredlist.org/details/160466/0 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011]

Ideopsis vulgaris has a wingspan reaching {{convert|70|-|80|mm}}.Peter K. L. Ng, Richard Corlett, Hugh T. W. Tan [https://books.google.com/books?id=D1oW0EquxDAC&dq=Ideopsis+vulgaris+Singapore+Biodiversity%3A+An+Encyclopedia+of+the+Natural+Environment&pg=PA253 Singapore Biodiversity: An Encyclopedia of the Natural Environment] This butterfly is quite similar to the dark glassy tiger (Parantica agleoides). A transverse black bar in the forewing cell, cutting through one of the white streaks, distinguishes the blue glassy tiger from the other one.[http://www.butterflycircle.com/checklist/showbutterfly/54 Butterfly Circle] As other milkweed butterfly it is mimicked by Chilasa clytia (Papilionidae).

File:Blue Grassy Tiger Ideopsis vulgaris (22425719362).jpg

Upperside: black, the dorsal margin of hindwing broadly cinereous; both wings with the following subhyaline bluish-white streaks and spots.

Forewing: a short streak along dorsal margin, two broad streaks united at base in interspace 1, the upper one curved, a broad streak in cell with an outwardly indented detached spot beyond it in apex, a slender costal streak, two large discal spots inwardly pointed, outwardly truncate, three elongate spots beyond apex of cell and four or five elongate preapical spots beyond them, finally a subterminal and a terminal series of spots decreasing in size towards apex of wing.

Hindwing: elongate streaks in interspaces 1 a and 1 b, two in interspace 1, two in cell with a short slender streak-obliquely between their apices, shorter streaks radiating outwards in interspaces 2–6, a sub-terminal series of small spots and a terminal row of dots beyond.

File:Nymphalidae - Ideopsis vulgaris macrina..JPG

Underside: similar, the markings better defined. Antennae black, palpi black above, bluish white below; head and thorax black, spotted with bluish white; abdomen brown above, sullied white below. Male without any special sex-marks on the wings.{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=C.T. |author-link=Charles Thomas Bingham |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma Butterflies |volume=1 |edition=1st |publisher= Taylor and Francis, Ltd. |location=London |year=1905 }}

Race exprompta, Butler (Sri Lanka). Closely resembles D. vulgaris Butler, but has all the markings much broader, the apical spot in cell of forewing outwardly less emarginate; on the hindwing interspaces 1 a and 1 b are entirely filled with the white streak, while the short slender streak lying between the apices of the streaks in the cell coalesces with the lower one.

Race nicobarica, W.-M. & de N. (Nicobar Islands). Like the preceding race, but the subhyaline markings still broader and somewhat blurred. Upperside: forewing: the whole basal two-thirds of interspace 1 bluish white, enclosing a fine longitudinal black line; streak in discoidal cell vary broad, occasionally produced to the apical spot in the cell. Hindwing: the black in interspace 1 reduced to a mere streak; cell entirely bluish white, traversed longitudinally by a faint black forked line. In the solitary specimen of the male in the collection of the British Museum this line is entirelyabsent.

• Blue tiger (Tirumala limniace)
• Dark glassy tiger (Parantica agleoides)

File: Ideopsis vulgaris macrina - The Blue Glassy Tiger.webm

Adults can be found all the year around.[https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/143259-Ideopsis-vulgaris iNaturalist] They frequently visit flowers for feeding.

Females lay white eggs similar to a rugby ball. These eggs take about 3 days to hatch. The caterpillars are white with a black head, while the 2nd instar caterpillars are dark wine red to dark purplish brown colored, with whitish spots and a length about {{cvt|7.5|-|8|mm}}. In the 5th and last instar caterpillars reach {{cvt|34|mm}}.

Larvae feed on Gymnema species (Asclepiadaceae), Tylophora fleuxosa (a climber typical of mangrove areas), Tylophora tenuissima (Apocynaceae) and is thus distasteful to birds.[http://www.nic.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/danainae/ideopsis/index.html#vulgaris Ideopsis vulgaris], Funet.fi

The pupa is bright yellowish green, with a length of {{cvt|18|-|20|mm}}. After about 7 days the butterfly emerges.

• List of butterflies of India (Danainae)

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons}}

{{Wikispecies}}

• Brower, Andrew V.Z. (2010). [http://tolweb.org/Ideopsis/70709 Glassy Tigers]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q2675426}}

Category:Ideopsis

Category:Butterflies of Singapore

Category:Butterflies of Borneo

Category:Butterflies of Java

Category:Butterflies of Indochina

Category:Butterflies described in 1874

Category:Taxa named by Arthur Gardiner Butler

Category:Articles containing video clips

Category:Butterflies of Malaysia