Taenaris artemis (Vollenhoven, 1860)
Pearl Owl
(previously known as Drusilla artemis)
SATYRINAE,   NYMPHALIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Taenaris artemis
(Photo: courtesy of Carmelo Lopez Abad, Papua)

The Caterpillar of this species is orange with a black line along the back and a white line along each side. It has white hairs along the back and brown hairs along each side. The head has two black horns. The caterpillar grows to a length of about 5 cms. It feeds on :

  • Pandanus sp. ( PANDANACEAE ).

    The pupa is green with a length of about 3 cms. It hangs from a black cremaster.

    Taenaris artemis
    drawing by Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven, listed as Drusilla artemis
    ,
    Over eenige nieuwe soorten van daglinders uit Oost-Indie,
    Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, Volume 3 (1860), Plate 1, fig. 1,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The adult butterflies have white forewings with extensive pale brown bands along the costa and hind margin. The hindwings are also white with extensive pale brown bands along the costa and outer margin, shading to yellow at the base of each wing.

    Also the hindwings each have one eyespot on top and two eyespots on the underside. The female butterflies have a wingspan of about 8 cms. The male butterflies have a wingspan of about 6 cms.

    This species is found as various subspecies around the south-west Pacific, including

  • Papua New Guinea,

    and Australia in

  • Queensland on Cape York and in the Torres Straits.

    Taenaris artemis
    underside, drawing by Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven, listed as Drusilla artemis
    ,
    Over eenige nieuwe soorten van daglinders uit Oost-Indie,
    Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, Volume 3 (1860), Plate 1, fig. 2,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 462-463.

    Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven,
    Over eenige nieuwe soorten van daglinders uit Oost-Indie,
    Tijdschrift voor Entomologie,
    Volume 3 (1860), pp. 37-38, and Plate 1, figs. 1,2.


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    (updated 6 September 2009, 3 August 2016, 28 June 2020)