Quedara basiflava

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Quedara basiflava, the yellow-base flitter [1] or golden flitter,[2] is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae and is endemic to India's Western Ghats.[2][3][4][5][6]

Golden flitter
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Quedara
Species:
Q. basiflava
Binomial name
Quedara basiflava

Description

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Male. Upperside dark glossy blackish-brown, almost black. Forewing with a short post-medial semi-hyaline, white, fairly broad band, composed of two semi-quadrate, rather long, conjugated spots, filling up the end of the cell, the lower spot the larger, a still larger semi-quadrate spot below extending to the first median nervule, only divided from the upper spots by the median vein, its outer end extending somewhat outwards. Hindwing without markings. Cilia of both wings brown. Underside almost as dark as the upperside. Forewing with markings similar. Hindwing with a chrome-yellow basal patch, varying in extent in different examples, in the type specimen the basal third of the wing is so coloured, in some examples from the Nilgiris the chrome-yellow basal patch is much more limited. Antennae black, without markings; palpi, head and body above and the legs concolorous with the wings, palpi and thorax below greyish, abdomen cinereous. Female like the male, the spots on the forewing a little larger.

Food plants

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The larvae feed on Calamus hookerianus, Calamus pseudofeanus, Calamus rotang and Calamus thwaitesii.[7][8]

References

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  1. ^ Kunte, K. and K. Saji. 2013. Quedara basiflava de Nicéville, 1888 – Yellow-base Flitter. In K. Kunte, S. Kalesh & U. Kodandaramaiah (eds.). Butterflies of India, v. 1.06. Indian Foundation for Butterflies. [1]
  2. ^ a b R.K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. pp. 51–52. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  3. ^ Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera Page on genus Quedara.
  4. ^ E. Y., Watson (1891). Hesperiidae Indicae : being a reprint of descriptions of the Hesperiidae of India, Burma, and Ceylon. Madras: Vest and Company. p. 130.
  5. ^ W. H., Evans (1949). A Catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia, and Australia in the British Museum. London: British Museum (Natural History). Department of Entomology. p. 304.
  6. ^ a b   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1912–1913). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. X. Vol. 10. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. p. 203.
  7. ^ Ravikanthachari Nitin; V.C. Balakrishnan; Paresh V. Churi; S. Kalesh; Satya Prakash; Krushnamegh Kunte (2018-04-10). "Larval host plants of the buterfies of the Western Ghats, India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 10 (4): 11502. doi:10.11609/jott.3104.10.4.11495-11550.
  8. ^ K. Kunte (2006). "Additions to the known larval host plants of Indian butterflies". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 103 (1): 119–121.