The Lilacine Bushbrown is a brown butterfly with s and a pale band under its wings that has a faint lilac tint. It lives across East and Southeast Asia and in the Himalayas, and is not found in the United States.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A modest-sized brown butterfly. The upperside is plain brown with a large eyespot on the forewing; the underside is dark with a row of eyespots on the hindwing and a pale band with a purplish (lilac) tint.
- Seasonal forms
- Like many bushbrowns, it has seasonal forms: in Japan the summer generation has larger eyespots.
Look-alikes
Chinese BushbrownMycalesis gotama
The Chinese Bushbrown's underside is paler and more yellowish, with a yellowish-white band; the Lilacine Bushbrown is darker beneath with a lilac-tinted band.
Why they get mixed upThe two share much of their range in East Asia and look very similar.
Where it lives
- Range
- Japan, Korea, Taiwan, much of China, and south and west through Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, northeastern India, and the Himalayas. It does not occur in the Americas.
- Preferred conditions
- In Japan it keeps to forests and their edges, favoring shady spots.
Behavior
- Overwintering
- In Japan it spends the winter as a caterpillar.
Life cycle
- Caterpillar food plants
- In Asia, caterpillars are recorded feeding on grasses, including Japanese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis), cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica), wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus undulatifolius), and palmgrass (Setaria palmifolia).
Name and classification
- About the name
- Several subspecies are recognized across its range; the butterflies of Japan are called M. f. perdiccas, and those of Taiwan M. f. formosana.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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