Arnetta vindhiana

Arnetta vindhiana
File:Vindhyan bob WSF Arnetta vindhyana.jpg
File:Vindhyan Bob Under.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Arnetta
Species:	A. vindhiana
Binomial name
Arnetta vindhiana (Moore, 1883)
Synonyms
Isoteinon vindiana Moore, 1883

Arnetta vindhiana, commonly known as the Vindhyan Bob, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is native to India.

Description

See glossary for terms used

File:ArnettaVindhiana 801 1 Fitch.png

Male. Upperside dark olive-brown ; cilia cinereous ; forewing with a small yellow semi-transparent spot at upper end of the cell, three conjoined subapical spots, two discal spots, and a small oval spot above the submedian vein. Underside dusky ochreous : forewing with the posterior area broadly black ; spots as above ; hindwing with a yellow lunule at end of the cell, a small spot above it and five discal spots.

Size : 25-32mm. UNH spots obscure.UPF spot upper edge cell may be absent. Male:with no tuft UNF.

Distribution

This species is reported from Palni Hills, Nilgiri Hills, Meghamalai, Wayanad, Coorg, Konkan, west Khandesh, Mhow, Thana, Surat Dangs and Madhya Pradesh. Apparently being absent from the heavier jungle country between Bombay and Coorg. Presumably also found in the Vindhyan rage. T. R. D. Bell stated that they are found in dry, bamboo-growing hilly country, but Winter-blyth found it not uncommon on the western slopes of the Nilgiris in September and October in the very wettest, thickest jungle and it seems to be found in similar country in Coorg. Bell says that it is common in the Surat Dangs, where it is found sitting on the ground on dry leaves, blades of grass etc. It visits flowers.

Also recorded from the Nilgiris by George Francis Hampson, who considered this, modesta and nilgiriana as a single species with vindhiana being the dry season form, nilgiriana the wet season form, and modesta, described from a single specimen obtained by Mr. Lindsay, a variant. In collections of Indian Museum and Lionel de Nicéville.