Junonia almana

Junonia almana, the peacock pansy,[2][3] is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in Cambodia and South Asia.[2][3] It exists in two distinct adult forms, which differ chiefly in the patterns on the underside of the wings; the dry-season form has few markings, while the wet-season form has additional eyespots and lines.It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List.[4]

Peacock pansy
Wet season form
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nymphalidae
Genus:
Junonia
Species:
J. almana
Binomial name
Junonia almana
Synonyms[1]
  • Papilio almana Linnaeus, 1758
  • Papilio asterie Linnaeus, 1758
  • Junonia asterie var. nikobariensis Felder, 1862

Description

The adult butterfly has a wingspan of 54–62 mm (2.1–2.4 in),[1] and exhibits seasonal polyphenism.

Dry-season form

"Upperside rich orange-yellow. Fore wing with a pale dusky and a much darker short transverse bar with lateral jet-black marginal lines across cell, another somewhat similar bar defining the discocellulars; costal margin, an inner and an outer subterminal line, and a terminal line dusky black; a large minutely white-centred ocellus with an inner slender and outer black ring on disc in interspace 2; two similar but smaller geminate subapical ocelli with an obscure pale spot above them and a short oblique bar connecting them to the black on the costa. Hind wing: a small minutely white-centred and very slenderly black-ringed discal ocellus in interspace 2, with a very much larger pale yellow and black-ringed ocellus above it spreading over interspaces 4, 5 and 6, the centre of this ocellus inwardly brownish orange, outwardly bluish black, with two minute white spots in vertical order between the two colours; finally postdiscal subterminal and terminal black sinuous lines.[1]

"Underside ochraceous brown, very variable. In most specimens the cell of the fore wing is crossed by three dark sinuous bands, the outermost along the discocellulars; these are very faint in some; both fore and hind wings crossed by a basal and a discal pale sinuous line, the latter margined outwardly by a dark shade, which is traversed by an obscure somewhat obsolescent row of dark spots, and outwardly bounded by a subterminal sinuous line, the dark shade in many cases spreading on the fore wing to the terminal edge of the wing; on the hind wing the subterminal line meets the discal in an acute angle at the tornus. Antennae dark brown; head, thorax and abdomen more or less orange-brown; paler beneath."[1][5]

  • Dry season form
  • Underside, dry season form
  • Underside, wet season form

Wet-season form

"Upperside similar, the black markings deeper in colour and heavier, the subterminal and terminal lines more clearly defined.

"Underside pale ochraceous. Fore wing: cell crossed by live short sinuous dark brown lines, a similar line on the discocellulars and another beyond it, both bent inwards at an angle and continued to the dorsum, the space between them forming a discal broad fascia, which pales to whitish posteriorly; the postdiscal ocelli, subterminal and terminal lines as on the upperside but paler. Hind wing: a slender transverse subbasal dark line, a discal whitish straight fascia in continuation of the one on the fore wing; the postdiscal ocelli, the subterminal and terminal lines much as on the upperside but paler; the anterior ocellus with a double iris and centre. Antennae dark brown; head, thorax and abdomen slightly darker than in the dry-season form."[1]

Distribution

J. almana is found in India and South East Asia, and eastwards to China and Japan.[1][2][3]

Larva

The caterpillars of Junonia almana feed on a variety of plants, including Hygrophila auriculata, Phyla nodiflora and species in the genera Acanthus, Barleria and Gloxinia.[6]

"Cylindrical. Head blackish, slightly hairy. Body pale ochreous-brown, with a dorsal, subdorsal and lateral blackish line, and a row of small-ringed spots below the latter; second segment anteriorly with a transverse reddish stripe; second, third and fourth segments posteriorly with a transverse blackish stripe; second to last segment armed with a dorsal, subdorsal, and two lateral rows of short, fine-branched spines." (Frederic Moore quoted by C. T. Bingham)[1]

Pupa

"Rather short and thick; head and thorax broad, headpiece pointed beneath; thorax and abdomen dorsally with short tubercular points; colour brownish-ochraceous." (Frederic Moore quoted by C. T. Bingham)[1]

References
  1. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Bingham, Charles Thomas (1905). Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 1. pp. 361–362.
  2. 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. 219. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  3. Savela, Markku. "Junonia almana (Linnaeus, 1758)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  4. "Peacock Pansy". IUCN Redlist.
  5. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Moore, Frederic (1899–1900). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IV. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 78–82.
  6. Krushnamegh Kunte & Madhav Gadgil (2000). "Appendix I. Larval host plants of peninsular Indian butterflies". Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press. pp. 221–228. ISBN 978-81-7371-354-5.
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