Common Palmfly

As in some other species in the genus Elymnias, the common palmfly has a precostal cell in the hindwings and a tuft of androconial scales on the dorsal discal cell of the hindwings. Some populations of this butterfly species are sexually dimorphic: males and females do not look alike. In sexually dimorphic populations, males have black upperside forewings with small blue patches and mimic Euploea species, while the females mimic butterfly species of the genus Danaus. Race undularis (Subhimalayas and Southeast Asia) male upperside blackish brown. Forewing with a subterminal series of blue or sometimes slightly green elongate spots, curving strongly inwards and getting more elongate opposite the apex, forming almost an oblique bar up to the costa. Hindwing: the terminal margin broadly bright chestnut, sometimes with a subterminal paler spot in two or more of the interspaces. Underside pale brown, the basal two-thirds of both forewing and hindwing densely, the outer third more sparsely covered with dark ferruginous, somewhat broad, transverse striae. Forewing with a broadly triangular pale purplish-white preapical mark; both forewings and hindwings with a broad subterminal area purplish white. Hindwing with a small white spot opposite middle of the costa and a more or less complete series of more obscure whitish subterminal spots. …

Cocos nucifera (coconut) Calamus pseudo-tenuis, Calamus rotang, Calamus thwaitesii, Phoenix loureiroi and Licuala species.