Ypthima striata Hampson, [1889] - Striated Five-ring

Subspecies in India

No subspecies are listed under this species.
 

Photo Gallery and Species Biology

The species was described from the "southern slopes of the Nilgiris, 2000-4000 ft." (Hampson 1889), where it was believed to be endemic. The specimen reported here (BOI media codes as912 to as917) is the first record outside the Nilgiris, and it has extended the known range of the species to the southern tip of the Western Ghats. The record also suggests that the species should occur throughout the southern Western Ghats from the Nilgiris to the Neyyar-Peppara area.

Despite being reported as "The wet-season form occurs commonly at about 3000 ft. on the southern slopes of the Nilgiris in August, and the dry-season form in December and January." in the original species description (Hampson 1889), the species has subsequently been very rarely seen or recorded in literature. Evans caught only one male in the Nilgiris, possibly in the early 1910s (BMNH butterfly collection, Kunte, personal unpublished data). Larsen (1987) noted that Wynter-Blyth failed to record it, and Larsen himself saw but only one male during his years of stay in the Nilgiris (this record needs to be verified). Based on the current evidence, the species appears to be genuinely rare. As far as currently known, after Evans's collection nearly 100 years ago, the species appears to have been seen only once by Larsen (this is a provisional record) before our sighting in Neyyar WLS, Kerala, in December 2012 (BOI media codes as912 to as917).

StateJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecNo date
Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT
Andhra Pradesh2
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh
Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT
Daman & Diu UT
Delhi
Goa
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir UT
Jharkhand
Karnataka132211016
Kerala15
Ladakh UT
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Odisha
Puducherry UT
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu12
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
Total11323310113
Axonopus compressus (Kalesh S. pers. obs. 2017), Setaria barbata (Kalesh S. pers. obs. 2017) (Poaceae).


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.

 

bz148 , bz147 , bz146

1. Hampson, G. F. 1889(1888). The butterflies of the Nilgiri District, South India. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: Part 2–Natural Science, 57:346-368.

2. Larsen, T. B. 1987. The butterflies of the Nilgiri Mountains of Southern India (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 84:560-584.

Page citation

Anonymous 2024. Ypthima striata Hampson, [1889] – Striated Five-ring. 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/ypthima-striata, accessed 2024/12/06.