| Brazilian Crescent (Ortilia liriope (Cramer, 1775)) |
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Scientific name: Ortilia liriope (Cramer, 1775) Common name: Brazilian Crescent French name: Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Rhopalocera Family: Nymphalidae Subfamily: Nymphalinae Wingspan: About 35 mm. Biotope: Open and sunny places, clearings, woodland edges, secondary forests. Geographic area: Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana and northern Brazil. Flight time: All year round. Number of generations : Caterpillar: Dark brown with a reddish brown head. They are first gregarious and they disperse just after the last moult. Host plant: Acanthaceae of the Justicia genus and maybe other Acanthaceae and Asteraceae. |
The upper side of the wings of Ortilia liriope is a copper orange colour with a wide dark brown border on the margin. You can also see some less regular brown marks on the costal edge and some brown scaling in the basal area. The hind wings show a submarginal row of orange chevrons quite well visible inside the dark brown border. The under side is a duller orange yellow colour with a submarginal line of slightly darker chevrons. The hind wings show irregular lines and one row of dots just before the chevrons. There is a possible confusion with a couple of species of the same genus. Ortilia gentina is found in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Ortilia dicoma is found in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The photos of specimens of these two species that I have been able to find show very dark brown marks, almost black. It seems to me that Ortilia liriope shows slightly paler marks. Anyway, the geographical location should be enough to easily tell Ortilia liriope apart from the two other species. There is also a possible confusion with Nymphalidae of the Tegosa genus. I have never observed, among these last ones which could lead to confusion, any dark brown mark on the costal edge nor any line of chevrons well located inside the dark brown marginal border of the hind wings. |
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I have shot this picture in the village of Saül, small clearing surrounded by the beautiful primary forest. |
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I have shot this picture in the village of Saül. |
André Bon August 2014