[Movie File] Indian Awlking (Choaspes benjaminii)

   Indian Awlking (Choaspes benjaminii) is an unmistakable butterfly because of its unique wing color. In Japan no skippers show such a vivid green except this species. Relatively tropical species and scarce in the northern part of its range. It appears twice in most places, although more then three times in southern islands. Males tend to patrol in the open area near the forest, claming their territory by flying circle without perching and attacking others coming into the territory. This species are often found on flowers or animal droppings especially at the dawn or in the evening.

(Ootsuki-shi, Yamanashi, JAPAN, May 2012)

   Genus Choaspes contains six species from India to Papua New Guinea. All the species look similar each other and difficult to identify. Among these six species, Choaspes illuensis is fairly peculiar in its wing patterns. This magnificent and very rare species is known from Ceram island and Papua New Guinea.

▲Choaspes illuensis male UN(Ceram Island, Indonesia)
[Courtesy of Mr. UEHARA Jiro]

If you want to learn Genus Choaspes further, the following paper in our journal is very useful.

TSUKIYAMA, H. 1992. Genus Choaspes Moore, a review (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) --- with illustrations of all taxa and new information up to 1991. Butterflies 2: 26-31.