Subspecies in India
(1) Lethe europa europa (Fabricius, 1775) – Dakhan Bamboo Treebrown
(2) Lethe europa niladana Fruhstorfer, 1911 – Himalayan Bamboo Treebrown
(3) Lethe europa nudgara Fruhstorfer, 1911 – Andaman Bamboo Treebrown
Also see Lethe tamuna de Nicéville, 1887 – Clear-eyed Treebrown, a Nicobarese endemic, which is often treated as a subspecies of L. europa.
Conservation and Special status
This species is legally protected in India under Schedule I of the WildLife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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This species has been recorded so far from every state and union territory of India, except Ladakh, Lakshadweep, and Nicobar Islands.
This species is legally protected in India under Schedule I of the WildLife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022.
This is a common species that occurs in dry and moist deciduous forests and edges of evergreen forests, from sea level up to approx. 2,500 m. It frequently occurs close to bamboo plants, which are its larval host plants. The species is occasionally found in rural and wooded urban habitats.
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Assam | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 9 | ||
| Kerala | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 7 | ||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Maharashtra | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 13 | 26 | 17 | |||
| Manipur | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Mizoram | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | |||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Telangana | |||||||||||||
| Tripura | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Total | 15 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 9 | 22 | 24 | 36 | 36 | 57 | 41 |
Bambusa bambos, Bambusa vulgaris, Dendrocalamus strictus (Poaceae).
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
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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.
Page citation
Saji, K., K.M. Haneesh, and K. Kunte. 2026. Lethe europa (Fabricius, 1775) – Bamboo Treebrown. 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/lethe-europa, accessed 2026/06/07.