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Kannan A
Singapore
08/20/2021
05:28 pm

Equipment Details:

Nikon Coolpix P900

Image Details:

When I shared this photo with some of my friends, at one look they thought it was part of the dried palm leaf. Never did they realise it was the Common Palmfly which is bluish black with a series of blue to purple submarginal spots on the forewing turning to purplish brown on the hindwing. Its underside is a rich brown filled with minute fasciae, with a ‘thumb-print’ of a lighter shade at the apex of the forewing. Usually, there is a white spot in the centre of the costa on the hindwing. The slightly larger female resembles the male but is somewhat lighter in colour and has a few whitish submarginal spots on the upperside of its hindwings.Common Palmfly is the most widespread species of its genus in the Indo-Australian region. Locally, it is also a rather common species with widespread occurrence across multiple habitats. Typically the adults are shade-loving, and usually sighted flying along the edge of vegetated area and in the vicinity of a clump of palm trees.