Colotis amata
| Small salmon Arab | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Pieridae |
| Genus: | Colotis |
| Species: | C. amata |
| Binomial name | |
| Colotis amata (Fabricius, 1775) | |
| Synonyms | |
See also elsewhere under Colotis calais
| |
Colotis amata, the Small Salmon Arab,[2][3] is a small butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is primarily found in South Asia in countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Similar populations across Arabian Peninsula, Africa and Madagascar were earlier treated as being conspecific. However, based on later studies, they have been split and now regarded as a different species Colotis calais. [4]
Description
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The male's upperside has a salmon-pink ground colour. The costa on the forewing is black and thickly overlaid with greyish or pinkish scales; a black spot at apex of cell, which may be large and quadrate or smaller and lunate; termen broadly black, with an enclosed double transverse series of spots of the ground colour the inner series consists of a large spot in interspace 1, two very small spots in interspaces 2 and 3, one in each, and four larger anterior spots placed in a curve; the spots in the outer series are variable in number, but generally there is one in each interspace, these are more or less linear in shape. Hindwing: a band on costal margin extended to just within the upper margin of the cell, covered with dense black specialized scales; this black band joined onto a broad similarly coloured terminal band of ordinary scales, that becomes more or less diffuse and powdery posteriorly, and encloses a double series of small spots of the ground colour the inner series often obsolescent, in some specimens entirely absent; dorsum heavily irrorated with fuscous scales, the irroration extended onto the disc, which has therefore generally a greyish appearance.[5]
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Underside: greenish yellow; an anteciliary fine black line on both forewing and hindwings; the black markings of the upperside show through by transparency. Forewing: a black spot, variable in size and intensity, in some specimens absent altogether, at apex of cell; a subterminal quadrate black spot in interspace 1 and another (sometimes faintly marked or absent) further outwards in interspace 2; disc faintly, dorsal margin broadly very pale salmon pink. Hindwing: the whole surface sparsely irrorated with minute black scales; a small black discocellular spot. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings pale salmon pink. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black, the antennae speckled with white, the head and thorax covered with greenish-fuscous hairs; beneath: the palpi green, thorax and abdomen white.[5][1] The female is polymorphic. Form 1. Upperside: ground colour paler than in the male, in some specimens quite ochraceous outwardly; all the markings similar, but duller in tint. The hindwing, of course, without the black costal band of specialized scales, the ground colour extended up to the costal margin. Underside similar to that of the male, but the ground colour very much paler and more ochraceous than green. In some specimens, in addition to the black spots in interspaces 1 and 2 on forewing, there is an anterior postdiscal fuscous curved band. Hindwing: discocellular spot larger than in the 3 and annular; a curved discal series of reddish spots from costa to dorsum.[5] Form 2. Similar to female form 1, but the ground colour pale primrose yellow to pure white. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen in both forms much as in the male.[5]
Life history
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Eggs: The female seeks out the host plant – usually a Salvadora shrub or tree – and settles on a suitable leaf where oviposition takes place. This species is gregarious ovipositor – meaning it lays eggs in clutches as opposed to many other butterfly species that lay their eggs singly on each leaf or shoot. The number of eggs in a clutch can consist of only a couple of eggs to as many as around 60.[6] Females usually visit multiple host plants and oviposit multiple such clutches of varying sizes in their lifetime.
Larva: "Very like that of Eurema, cylindrical or slightly depressed with a rough surface due to minute tubercles, from each of which grows a very small bristle. The colour is a uniform grass-green, with a blue dorsal line more or less distinct, and a yellowish lateral line dividing the colour of the back from the paler green of the underparts." (Davidson & Aitken quoted in Bingham[5]). The caterpillars feed on Salvadora trees.
Pupa: "Compressed; wing-cases produced into a keel like that of Eurema. It is suspended in the same manner by the tail and a moderately long band. The colour is usually some shade of dingy whitish brown or dirty green." (Davidson & Aitken quoted in Bingham[5])
Ecology
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Small Salmon Arabs mainly use various species from the family salvadoraceae as their host plant. Species like Salvadora persica grow readily in saline lands across Indian subcontinent, often making these butterflies abundant along the coastal areas of elevated soil-salinity and tidal mudflats. Small Salmon Arabs are also common inland in arid, semi-arid or seasonally dry landscapes where host species like S. persica, S. oleoides and Azima tetracantha are present. In northwestern India (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi) and Pakistan it shares its range with White Arab (Colotis vestalis) which is another Salvadora-dependent species.
Small Salmon Arab has also been noted to use Zanthoxylum asiaticum (syn. Toddalia asiatica) as its host plant, despite the plant belonging to the family rutaceae (citrus family) as opposed to the usually preferred salvadoraceae.[7]
Adult butterflies are fond of smaller flowers for nectar and often fly low along the ground in search of wildflowers.
Subspecies
[edit]- C. a. amata (Western and Northern India, Pakistan )
- C. a. modesta (Butler, 1876) (Peninsular India, Sri Lanka) [8]
Former subspecies, since revised under Colotis calais after Nazari et al. 2011.
- C. a. calais (Cramer, 1775) (Mauritania, northern Senegal, Gambia, Mali, north-eastern Nigeria, Niger, Zambia, northern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa, southern Arabia)
- C. a. crowleyi (Sharpe, 1898) (Madagascar)
- C. a. williami Henning & Henning, 1994 (central and northern Namibia)
Gallery
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At Vikhroli, Mumbai
Male upper and underside
Female upper and underside
See also
[edit]References
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- 1 2 Swinhoe, Charles (1905–1910). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VII. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 143–144.
- ↑ Varshney, R.K.; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. p. 75. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
- ↑ Savela, Markku. "Colotis amata (Fabricius, 1775)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ↑ Nazari, Vazrick; Larsen, Torben B.; Lees, David C.; Brattström, Oskar; Bouyer, Thierry; Van de Poel, Guy; Hebert, Paul D. N. (August 2011). "Phylogenetic systematics of Colotis and associated genera (Lepidoptera: Pieridae): evolutionary and taxonomic implications: Phylogenetic systematics of Colotis". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 49 (3): 204–215. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0469.2011.00620.x.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Vol. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd. pp. 261–263. - ↑ Kaur, Manbeer; Sidhu, Avtar Kaur (10 September 2016). "Observations on the Biology of Type-species, Colotis amata (Fabricius), the Small Salmon Arab (Papilionoidea : Pieridae)" (PDF). Biological Forum – An International Journal.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ↑ Nitin, Ravikanthachari; Balakrishnan, V. C.; Churi, Paresh V.; Kalesh, S.; Prakash, Satya; Kunte, Krushnamegh (2018-04-10). "Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 10 (4): 11495–11550. doi:10.11609/jott.3104.10.4.11495-11550. ISSN 0974-7907.
- ↑ "Colotis amata (Fabricius, 1775) - Small Salmon Arab".