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Dark Tinsel -- Acupicta delicatum de Nicéville, 1887

December 31, 1969

Dark Tinsel -- Acupicta delicatum de Nicéville, 1887

Dark Tinsel -- Acupicta delicatum de Nicéville, 1887
Common Name: Dark Tinsel
Scientific Name: Acupicta delicatum de Nicéville, 1887
Place: Tareyhang, East Sikkim
Country: India
Date: April/13/2014
Photographed By: Matrika Sharma
Identification Credits : Matrika Sharma, Sunny Chir, Ravi Bhambure, Peter Smetacek, Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi, Saito Motoki
Tags : very rare
Some important additional comments :

Ravi Bhambure Dark Tinsel...C. delicatum ???

Sunny Chir : The filamentous tails points it to Catapaecilma,
over at ButterflyIndia it is suspected to be a Catapaecilma delicatum .

Saito Motoki: Just AMAZING! Genus Acupicta includes 7 species.
All species are quite rare and scarce. I have not yet checked by myself but one of my friends mentioned
that considerable number of the specimen of this species are preserved in BMNH (London).
I guess this species is confined to the lowland primary forest.
The destruction of its habitats made this species quite rare.
As far as I know this species has not been recorded for a long time
(possibly more than 40/50 years) from Sikkim.
I have never imagined that I can see the photo of the live specimen.

Peter Smetacek: The criterion for 're-discovery' would ideally be if the species were believed
to be locally extinct from an area and is then found to be present.
However, in the case of India, quite some work was carried out on natural history during the pre-Independence period.
Immediately after, we entered a Dark Age, so nobody was looking for anything.
I remember during the 1980s, there was no one to talk butterflies with in India, I used to write letters abroad,
which would take a fortnight each way, so conversations were slow.
I would therefore not post this as a re-discovery, since it was not very rare originally,
but it is certainly the first digital photo of the species.
secondly, if Matrikaji can get some additional information on the butterfly while it is around,
then we might fill in the gaps of its habitat and habits.
Motoki san can perhaps guide us a bit in this matter.

Matrika Sharma: This butterfly is found at an altitude of around 1000-1300ft.
On April/13/2014 on a narrow mountain stream locally known as Danak river at Tareythan, East Sikkim, India.
The butterfly was in resting position near near to water. Flying pattern is like that of Common Tinsel.
And upside colour is blue, little darker than of Common Tinsel.
Because of low light, I need to use flash, otherwise I would have got more natural colours.
First I thought it was variation of Common Tinsel, but later on when I compared it with Common Tinsel picture,
it come to be different.

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Dimensions: 1850 x 1400
File size: 421.23 kbytes
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