Burara gomata


Burara gomata, commonly known as the pale green awlet, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Northeast India, the Western Ghats and parts of Southeast Asia. The butterfly was reassigned to genus Burara by Vane-Wright and de Jong and is considered by them to be Burara gomata. This revised scheme was reflected by review of morphology in Chiba, 2009, and genomic data in Toussaint et al. 2020.

Range

The pale green awlet ranges from India, Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and the Indonesian archipelago. In India, the butterfly is found in South India up to North Kanara, and along the Himalayas from Sikkim to Assam and eastwards to Myanmar.
The type locality is Darjeeling in the north of West Bengal.

Status

This species is rare in South India but not rare in the Himalayas.

Description

The butterfly has a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm.
Edward Yerbury Watson gives a detailed description:

Life history

The adult butterfly is crepuscular in activity. The larva has been recorded on Heptapleurum venulosum, Heptapleurum wallichianum, Embelia ribes var. ribes, Heptapleurum luridum, Heptapleurum heptaphyllum, Trevesia sundaica, and Horsfieldia species.