Euploea leucostictos (Gmelin, 1790) Orange-flash Crow (one synonym : Euploea usipetes Hewitson, 1858) DANAINAE,   NYMPHALIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

(Photo: courtesy of plantcrazy007, Malaita, Solomon Islands)

The caterpillars of this species have alternating black and white bands, with three pairs of black and red tentacles on the first few segments, and another pair on the last segment.

female
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The adult butterflies of this species are dark brown, and usually a paler area on the rear of each hindwing. The males have a round orange sex mark near the middle of each forewing. The adult butterflies have a wing span around 6 cms.

female, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Mark Rosenstein, Fiji)

Various subspecies are found in

Queensland.

male, drawing by William Chapman Hewitson, listed as Euploea usipetes,
Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies,
Volume 1 (1858), Plate 34, fig. 4,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

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Further reading :

Johann Friedrich Gmelin,
1790 Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Linné, editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata,
Regnum Animalium,
Leipzig (Lipsiae) : G.E. Beer Volume 1, Part 5 (1790). p. 2289, No. 889.

William Chapman Hewitson,
Danaidae: Euploea
Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies,
London, Volume 1 (1858) p. 66, No. 4, and Plate 34, fig. 4.

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(updated 8 September 2003, 27 September 2024))