Common evening brown (Melanitis leda- wet season) - Sikkim Butterfly

Common evening brown (Melanitis leda- wet season)

Place : Singtam, East Sikkim

Date: September 17,  2014

Pic: Shital Pradhan

Scientific classification

Kingdom:             Animalia

Phylum:               Arthropoda

Class:                    Insecta

Order:                  Lepidoptera

Family:                 Nymphalidae

Genus:                  Melanitis

Species:                 M. leda

Binomial name:    Melanitis leda (Linnaeus, 1758)

Other Names: Common evening brown

Special feature: It is a common species of butterfly found flying at dusk.

Colonel C. T. Bingham wrote of the genus in 1878;-

The Melanitis was there among dead leaves, its wings folded and looking for all the world a dead, dry leaf itself. With regard to Melanitis, I have not seen it recorded anywhere that the species of this genus when disturbed fly a little way, drop suddenly into the undergrowth with closed wings, and invariably lie a little askew and slanting, which still more increases their likeness to a dead leaf casually fallen to the ground. (Wikipedia)