Subspecies in India
(1) Spalgis epius epius (Westwood, [1851]) – Oriental Apefly
(2) Spalgis epius nubilus Moore, [1884] – Nicobar Apefly
This is sometimes spelled epeus.
(2) Spalgis epius nubilus Moore, [1884] – Nicobar Apefly
This is sometimes spelled epeus.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Assam | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | |||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 20 | 6 | 18 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 17 | |
| Kerala | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 25 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 | ||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Odisha | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | |||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |||||||
| Tripura | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| West Bengal | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 4 | ||
| Total | 53 | 21 | 27 | 33 | 26 | 27 | 16 | 22 | 50 | 46 | 58 | 50 |
Coccidae (Insecta) (Bell 1916). Caterpillars are insectivorous, feeding largely on mealybugs in the Western Ghats. Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) (Robinson et al. 2010) has been reported but plants are not important as larval hosts for this butterfly species.
Key Reference:
Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10:11495–11550.
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
Page citation
Saji K. and K. Kunte 2025. Spalgis epius (Westwood, [1851]) – Apefly. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/spalgis-epius, accessed 2025/05/24.