Elymnias caudata
Elymnias caudata, the tailed palmfly, is a species of satyrine butterfly found in South India. Some authors consider this as a subspecies of Elymnias hypermnestra.
Description
This butterfly species are sexually dimorphic: males and females do not look alike. Males have black upperside forewings with small blue patches and mimic Euploea species, while the females mimic butterfly species of the genus Danaus.Both sexes have the wings longer, proportionately to their breadth, and the tail at apex of vein 4 on the hindwing longer compared to Elymnias hypermnestra.
Upperside: Male differs from E. hypermnestra as follows:
the subterminal and preapical spots on the forewing white suffused slightly with dark scales; the terminal half of the hindwing tawny, more or less suffused with dusky black, which in some specimens forms a distinct border along the termen. Female similar to the female of E. hypermnestra, but the black more extended; veins 2, 3, and 4 on the hindwing broadly bordered with black.
Underside: Female differs from E. hypermnestra in the more conspicuous broadly triangular white pre-apical patch on the forewing, and in the prominence of the broad tawny terminal half of the upperside of the hindwing, which shows through a pale, sometimes pinkish brown on the underside. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen brown, paler beneath and much paler in the female than in the male.
Range
It is endemic to South India.Life history
Food plants
Cocos nucifera Calamus pseudotenuisCalamus rotangCalamus thwaitesii Phoenix loureiroi Licuala grandis Areca catechuArenga wightiiLivistona chinensisPhoenix spp.Caryota urensPhoenix loureiroi- ''Licuala chinensis''