Subspecies in India
(1) Megisba malaya thwaitesi Moore, [1881] – Tailless Malayan. This was earlier treated as a distinct species on this website. Recent work (male genitalia and molecular sequencing) has confirmed this to be a subspecies of Megisba malaya – Malayan, after all.
(2) Megisba malaya sikkima Moore, 1884 – Variable Malayan
(3) Megisba malaya presbyter Fruhstorfer, 1918 – Andaman Malayan
Conservation and Special status
This species is legally protected in India under Schedule II of the WildLife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
This species has been recorded so far from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, 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 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||||||||
| Assam | 1 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | |||||||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
| Kerala | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 20 | 23 | 26 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 15 | ||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 15 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Mizoram | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Odisha | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Telangana | |||||||||||||
| Tripura | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 4 | 8 | 1 | |||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Total | 27 | 33 | 36 | 28 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 20 | 23 | 21 | 25 | 25 |
Mallotus philippensis , Mallotus repandus, (Euphorbiaceae). Allophylus cobbe, Erioglossum , Hemigyrosa, Lepisanthes tetraphylla , Schleichera oleosa (Sapindaceae).
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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. Megisba malaya (Horsfield, [1828]) – Malayan. 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/megisba-malaya, accessed 2026/06/15.