Tuesday 4 August 2015

72. Delias hyparete indica (The Painted Jezebel)

Number: 72
Family: Pieriidae
Sub-Family: Pieriinae
Species: Delias hyparete indica (Wallace, 1867)
Common name(s): The Painted Jezebel
Photography location: Ba Vi N.P. foothills (Hanoi)

With 237 species, genus Delias is the largest of the family Pieridae. Compared to other Pierids, Delias adults are easily recognized by their striking patterns and vibrant coloration on their ventral side, especially of the ventral hind wings. Popularly known as the Jezebels, these butterflies usually possess contrasting colors of black, white, yellow and red.

The genus Delias is represented in Vietnam by 12 species – agoranis, vietnamensis, patrua, subnubila, sanaca, berinda, belladonna, pasithoe, acalis, descombesi, agostina and hyparethe (Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2016). 

Delias hyparete is a common Pierid butterfly widely distributed from India to Indonesia, south China.
In Vietnam, it is the subspecies D. hyparete indica that is commonly sighted in forested habitats throughout the country.

 Male Delias hyparete feeding on Lantana flowers

A distant but interesting shot of a courtship (1 female + 2 males)
  It is easy to distinguish the females from the males as they have the dorsal surface of their wings more heavily dusted with black scales

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