Hasora taminatus

White Banded Awl
File:ParataMalayanaMFF 752 2.jpg
H. t. malayana (male, female and female underside)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Hasora
Species:	H. taminatus
Binomial name
Hasora taminatus (Hübner, 1818)

Hasora taminatus, commonly known as the White Banded Awl, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae, which is found in Asia.

Range

The butterfly is found in Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Hainan, Hong Kong, Western China, Malaysia, the Indonesian archipelago (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Nias, Sumbawa and Bali), Philippines and Sulawesi.

In India the butterfly is found in South India, where it occurs in the Western Ghats, Kodagu, Nilgiri mountains and Palni hills; and in the Himalayas from Mussoorie eastwards to Sikkim and through to Myanmar. It is also found in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The type locality is South India.

File:Hasora taminatus - andaman.jpg

White Banded awl at Mt Harriet National Park , Andaman

Status

'Common' in South India; 'Not Rare' elsewhere as per Evans (1932).

Description

For a key to the terms used see the glossary of Lepidopteran terms.

The butterfly, which has a wingspan of 45 to 55mm, is dark brown and unmarked above; and resembles the Common Banded Awl Hasora chromus, except that it has a broad white band on the under hindwing which is sharply defined. The female White Banded Awl has small spots on the upper forewing while the male has no brand above.

Detailed description

Watson (1891) gives detailed descriptions of Hasora taminatus malayana (C. & R. Felder, 1860), shown below:

Alls supra fuscis, subtus anticarum limbo costali, posticarum dimidio basali chalybaeis, his striga discali alba.

— (Felder, I. c.)

"The females have a small semi-transparent yellowish discal speck between the two posterior branches of the median vein, and of course lack the oblique band of short lines of modified scales seen in the males of this as well as of the preceding closely-allied species." (Wood-Mason and de Niceville, J. A. S. B., 1881, p. 254.)

The above refers to Andaman females only, as in the Nicobar females the small semi-transparent yellow discal speck between the two posterior branches of the median vein is wanting according to Messrs. Wood-Mason and de Niceville.

Recorded from the Andamans and Nicobars.

Note:As H. taminatus malayana is sympatric with another subspecies, H. taminatus bhavara Fruhstorfer, 1911 in part of it's range it has now been given specific status.

Host-plants

The larva has been recorded on Derris scandens and Pongamia spp.

See also

• Coeliadinae
• Hesperiidae
• List of butterflies of India (Coeliadinae)
• List of butterflies of India (Hesperiidae)

References

Print

• Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. 2nd Ed, (i to x, pp454, Plates I to XXXII), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.
• Kunte, Krushnamegh. (2000) Butterflies of Peninsular India, (i to xviii, pp254, Plates 1 to 32) Universities Press (India) Ltd, Hyderabad (reprint 2006). ISBN 81-7371-354-5.
• Watson, E. Y. (1891) Hesperiidae indicae. Vest and Co. Madras.
• Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

Online

• Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors). 2003. The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. [1] (accessed 22 September 2007).
• Brower, Andrew V. Z., (2007). Hasora Moore 1881. Version 21 February 2007 (under construction). Page on genus Hasora in The Tree of Life Web Project http://tolweb.org/.
• Savela, Marrku Website on Lepidoptera [2] (accessed 22 September 2007)