Stichophthalma nourmahal (the chocolate jungle queen),[1] is a South Asian butterfly that belongs to the Morphinae subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies family.
The chocolate jungle queen ranges from Sikkim, Assam and Nagaland in India and also in Bhutan.[1] [2]
Evans and Haribal report the butterfly as rare over its range.[2] [3]
The male upperside is bright chocolate brown. Its forewing has a broad, curved, oblique preapical band from costa to termen. Its apex and termen are dark brown with a subterminal series of delicate, brown, trident-shaped marks. The hindwing hosts a yellow band along the terminal margin, bearing paired, lunular, brown marks in the interspaces. Its underside is dark ochraceous, paler towards the apex of the forewing, with transverse markings: subbasal and median dark brown sinuous lines, bordered, the former on the inside, the latter on the outside, by narrow bands of greenish blue; a discal series of obscure ocelli, some of them pale spots; a postdiscal and a subterminal dark highly-sinuous line, the former ending in a black tornal spot outwardly margined with pink. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are chocolate brown above, ochraceous beneath.
The female upperside is similar, with a preapical white spot on forewing. The underside has similar transverse markings. The ground colour up to the median black transverse line is chocolate-brown; beyond, the forewing from costa to vein 4 is light ochraceous, inwardly paling to white below vein 1; the hindwing is crossed by a diffuse dark brown band; ocelli as in the male, followed by a dull ochraceous-brown postdiscal area. The terminal margins are broadly brown, inwardly defined and crossed subterminally by sinuous dark lines. The antennae, head, thorax and abdomen are as in the male.[4]
. Mark Alexander Wynter-Blyth . Butterflies of the Indian Region . 1957 . Bombay, India . . 978-8170192329 .
. Evans . W.H. . William Harry Evans . The Identification of Indian Butterflies . 2nd . Mumbai, India . . 1932 . 132–133 .
. Bingham . C.T. . Charles Thomas Bingham . . 1 . 1st . . London . 1905 .