Cepora nadina

Cepora nadina, the lesser gull, is a small to medium-sized butterfly of the family Pieridae, that is, the yellows and whites. The species was first described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1852. It is native to Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Hainan, and southeast Asia.

Description

Wet-season brood

Male has the upperside ground colour white. Forewing has the basal half of costal margin suffused with greenish yellow and irrorated (sprinkled) sparsely with black scales; apex from the middle of the costa and termen black, the inner margin of the black arched and acutely produced inwards along the veins, the black on the termen narrowed posteriorly and in interspaces 1a and 1 reduced to a mere thread. Hindwing: terminal margin with a broad dark band, due to the markings of the underside that show through by transparency, the darkness accentuated by a slight irroration of black scales; apices of some of the anterior veins black, in some specimens these are dilated and form a narrow anterior black border. Underside: white. Forewing: costal margin and apex very broadly suffused with greenish yellow and irrorated more or less densely with black scales, these latter form also diffuse subterminal patches on the white ground colour in interspaces 3 and 4; a preapical oblique short band bright yellow, its margins ill-defined; in interspaces 1 to 3 the black terminal markings on the upperside show through as a greyish-blue shade. Hindwing: suffused with greenish yellow that leaves only a broad streak in the cell (continued beyond in interspaces 4 and 5) of the white ground colour apparent; the whole surface of the wing more or less densely irrorated with black scales, these have a tendency to form a broad lower obscure discal dark patch and a broad terminal margin, the space between these two bright yellow; a spot of bright yellow also in inter-space 6. Antennae black; the head and thorax anteriorly with long greenish hairs, thorax posteriorly with greyish-blue pile: abdomen black with short white hair-like scales; beneath: the palpi with blackish hairs, the thorax yellow, abdomen white.