History of changes

History of changes

• Liphyra Westwood, J.O. 1864. [Untitled note]. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 3 2: 31 [31].

  Type species:

   Liphyra brassolis Westwood, 1864 by monotypy.
• Sterosis Felder, C. & Felder, R. 1865. Lepidoptera. Rhopalocera. Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wüllerstorf-Urbair. Zoologischer Theil. Bd. 2. Abtheilung 2, Heft 2. Vienna : Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften 137-378 pls 22-47. [for publication date: Higgins (1963: 159), see Fletcher (1979)] [219].

  Type species:

   Sterosis robusta C. Felder & R. Felder, 1865 by monotypy.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Kirby, W.F. 1871. A Synonymic Catalogue of Diurnal Lepidoptera. London : John van Voorst viii 690 pp. [419]
• Miskin, W.H. 1891. A synonymical catalogue of the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera (Butterflies) of Australia with full bibliographical reference: including descriptions of some new species. Annals of the Queensland Museum 1: [i]-xx 1-[93] [i]-ix [72]
• Samson, C. & Smart, P. 1980. A review of the genus Liphyra (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) of Indo-Australia, with descriptions of two new subspecies from the Solomon Archipelago. The Aurelian. A journal of Lepidoptera 1(4): 6-16 [10]
• Edwards, E.D. 1996. Lycaenidae. pp. 249-254, 360-363 in Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V. (eds). Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 xiv 529 pp. & CD-ROM. [249]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal
• Indonesia
  • Irian Jaya
  • Maluku
• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands

Oriental Region

General References

Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls. [420]

Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [338]

Samson, C. & Smart, P. 1980. A review of the genus Liphyra (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) of Indo-Australia, with descriptions of two new subspecies from the Solomon Archipelago. The Aurelian. A journal of Lepidoptera 1(4): 6-16 [9]

Waterhouse, G.A. & Lyell, G. 1914. The Butterflies of Australia: a monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera introducing a complete scheme of structural classification, and giving descriptions and illustrations of all the butterflies found in Australia, including a number now recorded for the first time. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 239 pp. 38 pls + 3 unnumbered colour pls. [Date published 25 July 1914] [134]

History of changes

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls. [422]
• Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [339]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Extralimital distribution—Indonesia (Irian Jaya, Maluku), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Oriental Region from India through South-east Asia to the Moluccas, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville and Solomon Ils.

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal
• Indonesia
  • Irian Jaya
  • Maluku
• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands

Oriental Region

Ecological Descriptors

Larva: myrmecophagous (host(s): Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) [FORMICIDAE] Green Tree Ant).

Extra Ecological Information

Larvae feed exclusively on larvae of the Green Tree Ant, Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775), they are not attended by the ants and do not feed on ant pupae.

Details of nominate subspecies, not present in Australia

Liphyra brassolis brassolis Westwood, 1864

Liphyra brassolis Westwood, J.O. 1864. [Untitled note]. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 3 2: 31 [31].
Type data: syntypes OUM sex unknown*; Westwood in the original description mentined two localities; Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [338] (referred to a holotype, but knew of no specimen).
Type locality: Assam and Singapore (given in original description; Parsons op. cit. gave Regio Indica as the type locality).

General References

Corbet, A.S. & Pendlebury, H.M. 1992. The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : Malayan Nature Society 595 pp. 69 pls. [217]

Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [338]

Samson, C. & Smart, P. 1980. A review of the genus Liphyra (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) of Indo-Australia, with descriptions of two new subspecies from the Solomon Archipelago. The Aurelian. A journal of Lepidoptera 1(4): 6-16 [11] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• Liphyra brassolis major Rothschild, L.W. 1898. On some new or rare Lepidoptera of the Old World regions. Novitates Zoologicae 5(1): 96-102 [97].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀ (Rothschild in the original description mentioned a type), Cedar Bay, thirty miles S of Cooktown, QLD (designated in original description).
  Paratype(s) BMNH 1♀, Cedar Bay, QLD
  Comment: Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [339] (referred to a holotype and gave type information).
• Liphyra brassolis melania Waterhouse, G.A. & Lyell, G. 1914. The Butterflies of Australia: a monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera introducing a complete scheme of structural classification, and giving descriptions and illustrations of all the butterflies found in Australia, including a number now recorded for the first time. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 239 pp. 38 pls + 3 unnumbered colour pls. [Date published 25 July 1914] [135].

  Type data:

   Lectotype AM KL21197 ♂, Darwin, NT (designated in original description)
  Comment: Waterhouse & Lyell in the original description listed three males; Tindale, N.B. 1923. On Australian Rhopalocera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 47: 342–354 pls 28–30 [349] (designated a type female which has no status).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls. [422]
• Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [339]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

From Kalumburu Mission, WA, across N Australia to Cape York and south to Yeppoon, QLD; extralimital distribution—Indonesia (Irian Jaya), Papua New Guinea.

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal
• Indonesia
  • Irian Jaya
• Papua New Guinea

Ecological Descriptors

Larva: myrmecophagous (host(s): Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) [FORMICIDAE] Green Tree Ant).

Extra Ecological Information

Eggs are laid on the underside of branches or on the trunk of a tree infested with the ant species Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricius, 1775) and have an incubation period of about three weeks, larvae are predacious and feed on the body fluids of ant larvae, they remain within the ant nest, adults emerge after about three weeks pupation, covered in deciduous scales which aid escape from the ants nest, adults do not feed, are active by day but most are collected at lights at night.

General References

Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls. [421] (distribution, identification, life-history)

Dodd, F.P. 1902. Contribution to the life-history of Liphyra brassolis, Westw. The Entomologist 35: 153-156, 184-188 [153]

Dunn, K.L. & Dunn, L.E. 1991. Review of Australian Butterflies: distribution, life history and taxonomy. Family Lycaenidae. Melbourne : K. & L. Dunn Vol. 3 336-512 pp. [336]

Johnson, S.J. & Valentine, P.S. 1986. Observations on Liphyra brassolis Westwood (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in North Queensland. Australian Entomological Magazine 13(1, 2): 22-26 [Date published 2/Apr/1986] [22] (biology)

Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [339]

Samson, C. & Smart, P. 1980. A review of the genus Liphyra (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) of Indo-Australia, with descriptions of two new subspecies from the Solomon Archipelago. The Aurelian. A journal of Lepidoptera 1(4): 6-16 [11] (taxonomy, biology)

Samson, C. & Smart, P. 1980. A review of the genus Liphyra (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) of Indo-Australia, with descriptions of two new subspecies from the Solomon Archipelago. The Aurelian. A journal of Lepidoptera 1(4): 6-16 [11] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Waterhouse, G.A. & Lyell, G. 1914. The Butterflies of Australia: a monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera introducing a complete scheme of structural classification, and giving descriptions and illustrations of all the butterflies found in Australia, including a number now recorded for the first time. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 239 pp. 38 pls + 3 unnumbered colour pls. [Date published 25 July 1914] [134] (taxonomy, as subspecies)

Yeates, D.K. 1990. New records of butterflies from the east Kimberley, WA. Australian Entomological Magazine 17(3): 73-74 [74] (WA specimens)

History of changes