Dodona eugenes

Tailed Punch
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Riodinidae
Genus:	Dodona
Species:	D. eugenes
Binomial name
Dodona eugenes Bates, [1868]

Dodona eugenes, the tailed Punch, is a small but striking species of butterfly found in the Indomalayan realm that belongs to the Punches and Judies, that is, the family Riodinidae.

Description

From Charles Thomas Bingham (1905) The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma, Butterflies, Vol. 1:

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

Male: Upperside: closely resembles D. dipaea in the ground-colour and markings, but on the hind wing the markings are broader and more diffuse, and the lobe has a short filamentous black white-edged tail. Underside a brighter brown than in D. dipaea; the markings very similar, but twice as broad.

• Expanse: 38-49 mm
• Habitat: The Himalayas from Murree to Bhutan; Assam, the Khasi and Jaintia Hills.
• Larva: More or less onisciform, pale emerald-green with two dorsal blue lines somewhat sparingly covered with short hairs, it Feeds on grasses and hill-bamboo.
• Pupa: pale green, with cross check o£ darker green lines. Head bifid, flat in front and angulated below.

Subspecies

• D. e. eugenes Sikkim to Assam to Burma, Tibet, Himalayas (west as far as Murree), Northeast India (hills), North Thailand, Indo China, West China.
• D. e. chaseni Corbet, 1941 Peninsular Malaya
• D. e. venox Fruhstorfer, 1912 Sikkim, Assam, Yunnan
• D. e. esakii Shirôzu, 1953 Formosa
• D. e. formosana Matsumura, 1919 Taiwan

See also

• List of butterflies of India
• List of butterflies of India (Riodinidae)

References

• Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
• Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.

Biology

The larva feeds on Adundinaria