Elymnias Explained

The palmflies are a common Asian butterfly genus found from India to the Solomon Islands. The caterpillars mimic leaves which they feed on. The adults mimic certain species (for example: E. cumaea looks like Melanitis leda).

Species

Listed alphabetically.^[1]

• Elymnias agondas (Boisduval, 1832) – palmfly
• Elymnias amoena Tsukada & Nishiyama, 1979
• Elymnias beza (Hewitson, 1877)
• Elymnias brookei Shelford, 1904
• Elymnias casiphone Geyer, [1827]
• Elymnias casiphonides Semper, 1892
• Elymnias caudata Butler, 1871
• Elymnias ceryx (Boisduval, 1836)
• Elymnias congruens Semper, 1887
• Elymnias cottonis (Hewitson, 1874)
• Elymnias cumaea C. & R. Felder, [1867]
• Elymnias cybele (C. & R. Felder, 1860)
• Elymnias dara Distant & Pryer, 1887
• Elymnias detanii Aoki & Uémura, 1982
• Elymnias esaca (Westwood, 1851)
• Elymnias harterti Honrath, 1889
• Elymnias hewitsoni Wallace, 1869 – Hewitson's palmfly
• Elymnias hicetas Wallace, 1869
• Elymnias holofernes (Butler, 1882)
• Elymnias hypermnestra (Linnaeus, 1763) – common palmfly
• Elymnias kamara Moore, [1858]
• Elymnias kanekoi Tsukada & Nishiyama, 1980
• Elymnias kuenstleri Honrath, [1885]
• Elymnias lise (Hemming, 1960)
• Elymnias luteofasciata Okubo, 1980
• Elymnias malelas (Hewitson, 1863)
• Elymnias melias (C. & R. Felder, 1863)
• Elymnias mimalon (Hewitson, 1861)
• Elymnias nelsoni Corbet, 1942
• Elymnias nepheronides Fruhstorfer, 1907
• Elymnias nesaea (Linnaeus, 1764) – tiger palmfly
• Elymnias obnubila Marshall & de Nicéville, 1883
• Elymnias panthera (Fabricius, 1787) – tawny palmfly
• Elymnias papua Wallace, 1869
• Elymnias paradoxa Staudinger, 1894
• Elymnias patna (Westwood, 1851) – blue-striped palmfly
• Elymnias pealii Wood-Mason, 1883 – Peal's palmfly
• Elymnias pellucida Fruhstorfer, 1895
• Elymnias penanga (Westwood, 1851) – pointed palmfly
• Elymnias sangira Fruhstorfer, 1899
• Elymnias singhala Moore, [1875] – Ceylon palmfly
• Elymnias tamborana Okubo, 2010
• Elymnias vasudeva Moore, 1857 – Jezebel palmfly
• Elymnias vitellia (Stoll, [1781])

Formerly in Elymnias:

• Elymniopsis bammakoo Westwood, 1851 – African palmfly

Mimicry

Several species are mimics:

• Taenaris catops – E. agondas
• Euploea mulciber – E. kuenstleri
• Danaus chrysippus – E. hypermnestra
• Idea leuconoe – E. kuenstleri
• Delias pasithoe – E. esaca
• Parantica melaneus – E. ceryx

See also

• Elymniopsis

External links

• Examples of mimicry

Notes and References

1. http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/satyrinae/elymnias/ "Elymnias Hübner, 1818"