Subspecies in India
(1) Curetis acuta dentata Moore, 1879 – Indian Acute Sunbeam
Taxonomic Information
There have been disagreements in the past regarding which scientific name and taxonomic level should apply to the Indian populations of this species. The name and status used here is from Eliot's synonymic catalogue of species and subspecies of Curetis (Eliot 1990). Other name combinations commonly used are Curetis dentata and Curetis dentata dentata. These populations have also been referred to by varied English names: Toothed Sunbeam, Dentate Sunbeam, and Angled Sunbeam. More notes about these scientific and English names will be provided here in due course.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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This species has been recorded so far from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, within the Indian limits.
This is a common species.
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Assam | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Kerala | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Maharashtra | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 3 | |||||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Mizoram | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Telangana | |||||||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| Total | 8 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 8 |
Butea monosperma, Pongamia pinnata (Fabaceae).
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Eliot, J. N. 1990. Notes on the genus Curetis Hübner (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Tyō to Ga, 41:201–225.
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
Aneesha, S., and K. Kunte. 2026. Curetis acuta Moore, 1877 – Acute Sunbeam. 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/index.php/curetis-acuta, accessed 2026/05/24.