Gaudy baron
Euthalia lubentina, the gaudy baron, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia. It was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1777.
Male. Upperside dark greenish brown. Forewing: a bar across middle and a bar beyond the apex of the cell crimson bordered with black: a slightly oblique transverse discal series of small white spots from costa to interspace 1, followed by a preapical curved row of four similar spots and a transverse subterminal series of elongate black spots forming an obscure band. Hindwing: a crescent-shaped black loop near apex of the cell area; a curved postdiscal series of four or five crimson spots outwardly bordered with black, the subcostal spot the largest, followed by a subterminal series of velvety-black subquadrate spots, the anterior three and the tornal spot outwardly crimson. Underside dark purplish brown suffused slightly with ochraceous, the markings as on the upperside but larger and more clearly defined, and in addition: forewing: two small black spots at base; basal half of costal margin crimson; hindwing: four crimson spots bordered with black at base; costal and dorsal margins crimson; another spot in the postdiscal series; the velvety-black spotting of the upperside more or less obsolete. Antennae dark brown, club beneath crimson; head, thorax and abdomen dark greenish brown; beneath, the palpi and the forelegs crimson, the rest pale brown.
Female. Similar, paler. Upperside forewing: the transverse crimson bands in cell obscure with a broad black-bordered white band interposed, the discal series of white spots very large, very irregular in shape. Hindwing: the ground colour suffused with greenish blue on terminal posterior half of wing; markings similar to those of the male. Underside brown, the tornal half of the hindwing bluish green. Forewing: the markings as on the upperside with the addition of two small black spots at base and an obscure broad terminal pale band. Hindwing with four black-bordered transverse crimson spots at base in addition to the markings as on the upperside. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but paler; the palpi beneath with a stripe of pink, the forelegs whitish.
The lower foot-hills of the Himalayas from Haridwar to Sikkim, but recorded from Mussooree, at 10,000 feet (3,000 m); Oudh; Bengal; eastward through Bhutan, Assam, Cachar to Myanmar, Teuasserim, Siam, Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. On continental India southward from Bombay.
