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Butterflies of
the Amazon and Andes
Euphonious
Hairstreak
Terenthina terentia
HEWITSON, 1868
Family - LYCAENIDAE
subfamily -
THECLINAE
Tribe - EUMAEINI
Terenthina terentia,
Manu cloudforest, 1600m
Introduction
All neotropical Theclines are placed in the tribe Eumaeini, which comprises of
1058 currently known species
classified into 83
genera. The Eumaeini are very poorly represented in museum collections, and
until very recently were ignored by most workers, the exception being Robbins,
whose revision of the tribe was published in the Lamas neotropical checklist,
2004. It is hardly surprising therefore, especially when taking into account the
small size of the butterflies and their secretive habits, that it is estimated
that there are probably several hundred species still awaiting discovery.
The genus Terenthina comprises just 2 species - bradyae,
which is distributed from Costa Rica to Ecuador and Venezuela; and terentia,
which is found in the Orinoco, the Amazon basin and the south-eastern Andes.
Habitats
This species occurs in rainforest and cloudforest habitats at altitudes between
about 200-1800 m.
Lifecycle
To be completed.
Adult behaviour
Both sexes nectar at
Eupatorium,
Lantana,
Senecio and other wild flowers,
spending long periods walking slowly about visiting every flower
head on each plant.
As they move about, they slowly
oscillate the hindwings. This has the effect of drawing attention
to the false eyespot and also causes the "false antennae" tails to
wiggle. It is generally accepted that this
functions to divert bird attacks away from the butterfly's body,
and onto the outer wing area, allowing the butterfly to escape
with just a peck taken out of it's wing. However it is notable that wing
oscillation is commonly practiced by most other Eumaeines,
including many which have neither eyespots or false antennae.
Clearly the explanation for this practice lies elsewhere. Eumaeine
males have a patch of androconia ( scent scales ) on the upper
wings, and it is the author's opinion that oscillating the
hindwings would serve to dislodge some of these scales and assist
in disseminating the pheromones. It would therefore make an
interesting study to ascertain whether this practice is adopted by
both sexes, or just by males.
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