221. Lethe philesanoides (The Interrupted Treebrown)

Number: 221

Family: Nymphaliidae
Sub-Family: Satyriinae

Species: Lethe philesanoides Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2003*

Common name(s): The Interrupted Treebrown

Photography location: Huu Lien N.R. (Lang Son Prov.) 

Described from northern Vietnam (holotype: Cat Ba National Park/paratypes: Huu Lien Nature Reserve), This inhabitant of limestone forests is also known from northern Thailand. 

Lethe philesanoides is very similar to L. philesana Monastyrskii & Devyatkin, 2000. The two species can be distinguished by some details on the underwings pattern (see PDF documents below)*.

*Update January 2017: I sent the pictures below to A. Monastyrskii who answered: "Your specimen looks like L. philesana... however only genitalia analysis may confirms this".

Lethe philesanoides (male), Huu Lien (October 2016) - without flash (close to the "true colour" of the species)

Lethe philesanoides (female), Huu Lien (October 2016) - with flash

There are over 1100 butterfly species currently known from Vietnam. Approximately 7% of all species are considered as endemic to the Indochinese Peninsula (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and eastern Thailand) (Monastyrskii, 2010a). This is the case of Lethe philesanoides.

Voucher specimen, upperside (from Huu Lien)
Ground colour of both wings uniform deep velvet brown-black; apex indistinctly paler. 

Same individual, underside

Description of Lethe philesanoides (PDF document) here.

Description of L. philesana here.