Burara gomata, commonly known as the pale green awlet,Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera Page on genus Bibasis. is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Northeast India, the Western Ghats and parts of Southeast Asia. The butterfly was reassigned to genus Burara by Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) and is considered by them to be Burara gomata (Moore, 1865).Vane-Wright and de Jong (2003) (see TOL web pages on genus Bibasis and genus Burara in the Tree of Life Web Project) state that Bibasis contains just three diurnal species, the crepuscular remainder having been removed to Burara. The species now shifted to Burara are morphologically and behaviorally distinct from Bibasis, within which many authors have formerly included them. This revised scheme was reflected by review of morphology in Chiba, 2009, and genomic data in Toussaint et al. 2020.
Range The pale green awlet ranges from India, Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and the Indonesian archipelago. In India, the butterfly is found in South India up to North Kanara, and along the Himalayas from Sikkim to Assam and eastwards to Myanmar.
The type locality is Darjeeling in the north of West Bengal.
Status This species is rare in South India but not rare in the Himalayas.
Description
The butterfly has a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm.
Edward Yerbury Watson (1891) gives a detailed description:
Life history The adult butterfly is crepuscular in activity. The larva has been recorded on Heptapleurum venulosum, Heptapleurum wallichianum, Embelia ribes var. ribes, Heptapleurum luridum, Heptapleurum heptaphyllum, Trevesia sundaica, and Horsfieldia species.
References
Further reading
Watson, E. Y. (1891) Hesperiidae indicae. Vest and Co. Madras.
External links
Brower, Andrew V. Z. and Warren, Andrew, (2007). Coeliadinae Evans 1937. Version 21 February 2007 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Coeliadinae/12150/2007.02.21 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/