Subspecies in India
(1) Athyma inara inara Westwood, 1850 – Himalayan Colour Sergeant
(2) Athyma inara sahyadriensis Kunte, 2024 – Sahyadri Colour Sergeant
Taxonomic Information
This is often treated, in error, as a subspecies of Athyma nefte (Cramer, 1780).
Conservation and Special status
This species is not legally protected in India under any schedules of WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Assam | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 4 | ||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 12 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | |||||||
| Kerala | 10 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 10 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 4 | 11 | |||||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Mizoram | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tripura | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | |||||||||||||
| West Bengal | 3 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Total | 33 | 6 | 22 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 13 | 39 | 29 | 20 |
Glochidion lanceolarium, Glochidion heyneanum, Glochidion zeylanicum (Phyllanthaceae). Mussaenda frondosa (Rubiaceae).
Key Reference: Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10:11495–11550.
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
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Kunte. K., and D. N. Basu. 2024. Two new taxa of brush-footed butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, southern India. Zootaxa, 5543:343–367.
Other Notes
The Western Ghats populations of this species have recently been described as a new subspecies, Athyma inara sahyadriensis Kunte, 2024 – Sahyadri Colour Sergeant. Before the description of this subspecies, its images were formatted as Athyma inara inara, which is how they are still displayed on this website.
Page citation
Saji K., H. Ogale, S. Debnath, M. Mandal, and K. Kunte. 2025. Athyma inara Westwood, 1850 – Colour Sergeant. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/athyma-inara, accessed 2025/05/23.