The Constable (Genus Dichorragia) and its allies

 

 ▲A pupa of Dichorragia nesimachus

▲A newly emerged adult butterfly of Dichorragia nesimachus

▲A red proboscis of Dichorragia nesimachus

 

 The Constable (Genus Dichorragia) and its allies

The author of this blog happened to obtain the pupa of the Constable (Dichorragia nesimachus) the other day. The shape of the pupa looks quite similar to a dead leaf. Unexpectedly the adult butterfly has emerged from the pupa because of the warm weather in Tokyo. Thus here the author of this blog would like to introduce this beautiful Nymphalid butterfly.

The Constable (Dichorragia nesimachus) ranges rather broadly from Nepal or northern India in the west to New Guinea in the east. In Japan northern Honshu (mainland) is the northernmost of its distribution. Genus Dichorragia contains only three species, namely ninus (Moluccas and PNG), nisseus (SW China) and this species. A Chinese species, nisseus is shown above compared with nesimachus. Some researchers argue that nisseus is only a sub-species or mere variation of nesimachus, however it is likely to be a independent species.

▲D. nisseus(Sichuan, China) and D. nesimachus (Yunnan, China)

 

 The Tabby (Pseudergolis wedah) is known to one of allied species of  Genus Dichorragia although its wing markings are quite different from each other. But if one can study the early stages especially the pupa of both species, it can be easily understood that they are closely related. The figure shown above is from our journal "Butterflies" No.17.

▲Early stages of Pseudergolis wedah (after Butterflies No.17)

[Reference]
Harada, M. 1997, Early stages of Pseudergolis wedah in Sichuan, China. Butterflies 17:15-17.