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Common evening brown (Melanitis leda- wet season)
Place : Singtam, East Sikkim
Date: September 17, 2014
Pic: Shital Pradhan
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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)