Cupha Explained

Cupha is a butterfly genus of the family Nymphalidae found in the Indomalayan and the Australasian realms.

The Cupha species are sharply divided from related genera by two characters: the thread like almost clubless antennae and the fourth subcostal nervure of the forewings finishing in the costal border. Only Cirrochroa possesses a similarly formed antennae, but it can immediately be separated as only one subcostal nervure branches before the end of the cell and through the position of the fourth nervure. In all the other genera it finishes either in the apex or in the outer border The species have rounded wings and undersides with eye-spots resemble Satyridae.^[1]

The contained species are:^[2]

• Cupha arias C. & R. Felder, [1867]
• Cupha crameri (Felder, 1860)
• Cupha erymanthis (Drury, [1773])
• Cupha lampetia (Linnaeus, 1764)
• Cupha maeonides (Hewitson, 1859)
• Cupha melichrysos (Mathew, 1887)
• Cupha myronides Felder, 1860
• Cupha prosope (Fabricius, 1775)
• Cupha aureus Samson, 1980

References

• Corbet A.S., Pendlebury H.M., Eliot J.N. 1992. The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula (4th edn.) Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.
• Parsons M. 1999. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea: Their Systematics and Biology. Academic Press, San Diego.

External links

• Images representing Cupha at EOL
• Images representing Cupha at Consortium for the Barcode of Life

Notes and References

1. Seitz, A. 1912–1927. Die Indo-Australien Tagfalter. The Macrolepidoptera of the World 9: 1–766;pdf 767–1201,pdf pls 1–175.pdf
2. http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/heliconiinae/cupha/ "Cupha Billberg, 1820"