Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon

Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon (Doubleday, 1847)


♂, Chiang Mai, Thailand.		♀, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

♂, Tak, Thailand.		♂, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

♂ genitalia, Tak, Thailand.


♂, Chaiyaphum, Thailand.		♂, Phetchabun, Thailand.

♂ genitalia, Chaiyaphum, Thailand.

ON : Amathusia amythaon Doubleday, 1847
OD : Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (1)19:175-176.
TL : "Silhet" [southern Khasia Hills, India ; north of Sylhet, Bangladesh]. (NHML)

Distribution : Sikkim to Myanmar, N. & W.Thailand (Chiang Mai to Kanchanaburi).

	● ssp.amythaon
	● intermediate between amythaon and annamensis
	● ssp.annamensis
	● ssp.dilucida

Synonym

Amathusia portheus C. Felder & R. Felder, 1867 : Reise öst. Fregatte Novara. Zool. Theil (3):461-462. TL. "India septentrionis".

Type Materials Information

amythaon : Syntype ♂, Rh.6006, Sylhet. (NHML) ; Syntype ♀, Rh.6007, Sylhet. (NHML)

Records taken from Literature

[ THAILAND ]
Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon ; Godfrey,1927 : 122. (N)
Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon ; Godfrey,1930 : 260. (Prae: Me Song forest; Chiang Mai: Doi Suthep)
Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon ; Pinratana,1983 : 53, 62, pl.36, figs.16a♂,♀. (Chiang Mai; Chaiyaphum; Kanchanaburi) (in part)
Amathuxidia amythaon dilucida ; Okamoto et al.,2013 : 9, 19, photo.24,♂. (Kanchanaburi: Mae Klong Station)
Amathuxidia amythaon amythaon ; Kimura et al.,2016 : 146, figs.♂,♂(Un),♀,♀(Un). (Ban Lin Thin; Sai Yok Noi)
Amathuxidia amythaon annamensis ; S.Sophonviwatkul, C.Sunthornwiphat & T.Laola,2015- : Butterflies of Thailand, figs. (Phetchabun; Chaiyaphum) (accessed: 2025.03.24)

Specimens Examined

[ THAILAND ]
Chiang Mai : 1♂ 1♀.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Tak : 1♂.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Kanchanaburi : 1♂ 1♀.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Notes

The butterfly is locally uncommon in montane dense forests mixed with bamboo at moderate elevations (Alt. 500 - 1100m). They prefer in the dark jungle and suddenly fly out from below. Flight is fast and quickly fly away into the bush.
The specimens from central Thailand (Phetchabun and Chaiyaphum) are very interesting, both the shape of the wings and the blue band on the UpF seem to be intermediate between the nominotypical subspecies and ssp.annamensis. And the hairtuft at the base of space 1a is small and inconspicuous as in ssp.annamensis. However, in contrast to their morphological characteristics, molecular analyses show that these specimens are much closer to amythaon and dilucida rather than to annamensis (H.Z. Li, pers. comm.). Okamoto et al. (2013) also noted that both the nominotypical subspecies and ssp.annamensis are found sympatrically in Kanchanaburi, W. Thailand. Further distributional and taxonomic studies are needed.

Literature

Doubleday, E.,1847 : Descriptions of new or imperfectly described Lepidopterous Insects.
Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (1)19:173-176.

Felder, C. & Felder, R.,[1865]-1874 : Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wüllerstorf-Urbair.
Zoologischer Theil. Zweiter Band. Zweite Abtheilung: Lepidoptera. Wien, Carl Gerold's Sohn.
(1):[4] + 1-136, pls. 1-21 ([12 January 1865]) ; (2):[2] + 137-378, pls. 22-47 ([after October] 1865) ; (3):[2] + 379-536, pls.48-74 ([25 April] 1867) ; (4):[6] + 1-9 [explanation of plates] ([31 December] 1874)

Butler, A.G.,1869 : Descriptions of new species of Diurnal Lepidoptera.
Ent. mon. Mag. 6:55-57.

Li, H.Z., Liu, Z., Hou, Y.X., Li, J.L. & Huang, B.T.,2024 : Revision of the taxonomic status of Amathuxidia morishitai from Hainan, China (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).
Acta Ent. Mus. Nat. Pragae 64(1):9-16.


♂, Phetchabun, Thailand. (photo by A.Giudici)	♀, Phetchabun, Thailand. (photo by A.Giudici)

♂, Phetchabun, Thailand.

2007.10.10 - 2025.03.31.