Glassy Tiger (Parantica aglea)
Image Copyright Michael Erik Maria Finder
Last Observed: July 2016 – Koh Chang
Last Observed By: Michael Erik Maria Finder
Two subspecies are recognized but neither form is constant either in markings or in habitat. In the British Museum collection there are specimens of true Parantica aglea aglea from Burma, and others, inseparable from typical Parantica aglea melanoides, from Mysore.
Subspecies Parantica aglea aglea
Ground-colour fuliginous black with subhyaline bluish-white streaks and spots. Fore wing: vein 11 anastomosed with vein 12.
Subspecies Parantica aglea aglea in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary
Upperside: fore wing—interspace 1 with two comparatively long, broad streaks united at base, truncate exteriorly; cell with a very broad, somewhat clavate streak traversed by two fine black lines; basal spots in interspaces 2 and 3; an irregular discal series of three spots and two elongate streaks and a subterminal series of spots, the two series curved inwards opposite apex of wing, the latter continued along the apical half of the costa; finally a terminal row in pairs in the interspaces, of much smaller spots; Hind wing: interspaces la, lb with broad long streaks from base; interspace 1 and cell with two streaks united at base in each, the pair in the cell with a short streak obliquely between their apices, an outwardly radiating series of broad, elongate, inwardly pointed spots in interspaces 2-8, followed by somewhat irregular rows of subterminal and terminal spots. Underside similar, the markings and spots sometimes a little ill-defined and blurred.
Antennae black; head and thorax black spotted with white; abdomen blackish brown, ochraceous beneath. Male secondary sex-mark in form ]
Subspecies Parantica aglea melanoides
Subspecies Parantica aglea melanoides on Indian Turnsole Heliotropium indicum at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
Northern and Eastern form. Differs as follows:— Wings on the whole longer and narrower; hyaline markings, especially in interspace 1 of fore wing and in cells of both fore and hind wing, very much broader. In many specimens the black ground-colour in these spaces is reduced to a mere slender black line enclosed in the subhyaline marking. On the underside the streaks are often much blurred and diffuse.
Expanse: 70–100 mm.
