Neptis hylas
{{Short description|Species of butterfly}}
{{Redirect|Common sailor|the other butterfly with this common name|Neptis laeta{{!}}Neptis laeta}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Common sailor
| image = Neptis hylas-Kadavoor-2016-07-26-001.jpg
| image_caption = Upperside
| image2 = Neptis hylas by kadavoor.JPG
| image2_caption = Underside
| taxon = Neptis hylas
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms =
- Neptis varmona, Moore, 1872
- Neptis eurynome (Westwood, 1842)
}}
Neptis hylas, the common sailor, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.{{Cite book|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287980260|title=A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India|last1=R.K.|first1=Varshney|last2=Smetacek|first2=Peter|publisher=Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi|year=2015|isbn=978-81-929826-4-9|location=New Delhi|pages=190|doi=10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164}}[https://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/limenitidinae/neptis/ "Neptis Fabricius, 1807"] at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms It has a characteristic stiff gliding flight achieved by short and shallow wingbeats just above the horizontal.
Bengali name: চরবাতাসি
Description
Dry-season form - Upperside black, with pure white markings. Forewing discoidal streak clavate (club shaped), apically truncate, subapically either notched or sometimes indistinctly divided; triangular spot beyond broad, well defined, acute at apex, but not elongate; discal series of spots separate, not connate (united), each about twice as long as broad; postdiscal transverse series of small spots incomplete, but some are always present. Hindwing: subbasal band of even or nearly oven width; discal and subterminal pale lines obscure; postdiscal series of spots well separated, quadrate or subquadrate, very seldom narrow. Underside from pale golden ochraceous to dark ochraceous almost chocolate; white markings as on the upperside, but broader and defined in black. Forewing: interspaces 1a and 1 from base to near the apex shaded with black, some narrow transverse white markings on either side of the transverse postdiscal series of small spots. Hindwing a streak of white on costal margin at base, a more slender white streak below it; the discal and subterminal pale lines of the upperside replaced by narrow white lines with still narrower margins of black. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black; the palpi, thorax and abdomen beneath dusky white.
Wet-season form - Differs only in the narrowness of the white markings and in the slightly darker ground colour and broader black margins to the spots and bands on the underside.{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/butterfliesvolii00bing#page/322/mode/2up/|title=Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1|last=Bingham|first=Charles Thomas|author-link=Charles Thomas Bingham|year=1905|pages=323–326}}}}{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{Cite book|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/103327#page/239/mode/1up|title=Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. III|last=Moore|first=Frederic|author-link=Frederic Moore|publisher=Lovell Reeve and Co.|year=1896–1899| volume=3 |location=London|pages=227–232}}}}
More than 20 subspecies have been described.{{inaturalist taxon|130339}}
{{cite web
|url=https://indiabiodiversity.org/biodiv/species/show/256485
|title=Neptis hylas Linnaeus, 1758
|publisher=India Biodiversity Portal
|access-date=Dec 5, 2020
}}
{{cite journal
|url=https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/sp/480/Neptis-hylas
|title=Neptis hylas (Linnaeus, 1758) – Common Sailer
|last1=Saji
|first1=K.
|last2=Soman
|first2=A.
|last3=Bhakare
|first3=M.
|last4=Manoj
|first4=P.
|date=2020
|editor1-last=Kunte
|editor1-first=K.
|editor2-last=Sondhi
|editor2-first=S.
|editor3-last=Roy
|editor3-first=P.
|publisher=Indian Foundation for Butterflies
|journal=Butterflies of India
|volume=3
|issue=3
}}
File:Neptishylas.jpg|Upperside on right, underside left
File:Neptis hylas 2.jpg|Mating pair, Bangalore, India
File:Common sailor.jpg|In Dumbara, Rathnapura, Sri Lanka
File:Common_sailor_(Neptis_hylas_matuta)_Bali_I.jpg|N. h. matuta
Bali, Indonesia
File:Common sailor (Neptis hylas matuta) underside Bali I.jpg|N. h. matuta
Bali, Indonesia
Common sailer (Neptis hylas kamarupa) male Babai bridge.jpg|male N. h. kamarupa
Nepal
Neptis hylas-luculenta.jpg|N. h. luculenta
Taiwan
Common sailor (Neptis hylas papaja) Phuket.jpg|N. h. papaja
Phuket, Thailand
Common sailor (Neptis hylas papaja) underside Phuket.jpg|N. h. papaja
Phuket, Thailand
This species has been observed to make sounds whose function has not been established.Scott, F.W. (1968). Sound produced by Neptis hylas (Nymphalidae). [https://www.lepsoc.org/content/journal Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society] [https://archive.org/stream/journaloflepidop22231lepi#page/n273/mode/2up 22(4):254]
Distribution
Throughout continental India; Sri Lanka; Assam; Nepal; Myanmar (Tenasserim), extending to China and Indomalaya.
Life history
=Larva=
Race varmona = eurynome. Frederic Moore describes this from a drawing by Samuel Neville Ward as follows:
"Head larger than the anterior segment, vertex with two short pointed spines, cheeks obtusely spined; third, fourth, sixth and twelfth segments armed with a subdorsal pair of stout fleshy spiny processes, those on the fourth segment longest. Colour pale green; face, the tip of processes and segments slightly washed with pale pinkish, a slight pinkish oblique lateral fascia from an anal process; a small, dark, lateral spot on the sixth segment."
=Pupa=
Larval Host Plants
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons cat inline}}
- {{Wikispecies inline}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2543812}}
Category:Butterflies of Indonesia
Category:Butterflies of Indochina
Category:Butterflies described in 1758
Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Category:Butterflies of Singapore
Category:Butterflies of Taiwan