Abisara echerius

Wet-season form, female in Talakona forest, in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh, India

Male in Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India

Male: Upperside rich purple-brown or maroon-brown with a blue gloss. Forewing with discal and postdiscal transverse fasciae very obscure and only slightly paler than the ground colour. Hindwing uniform; two inwardly conical small black spots near apex of interspace 1, and single similar but larger black spots near apices of interspaces 5 and 6; all these spots bordered slenderly and somewhat obscurely on the outer side with white. Underside dull maroon brown. Forewing with a broad, slightly curved discal, narrower postdiscal and subterminal transverse pale bands; the discal fascia broadening anteriorly. Hindwing: a slightly curved narrow discal pale fascia; the black spots as on the upperside, but bordered on the inner and on the outer sides by an obscure pale lunular line. Antennae black with scattered pale specks; head, thorax and abdomen maroon-brown; beneath, the palpi, thorax and abdomen paler brown.[7]

Female: Upperside: hazel brown, the terminal halves of the wings paler. Forewing: discal and postdiscal broad, obscure, pale transverse fasciae, followed by similarly obscure, somewhat broken, inner and outer subterminal pale transverse lines. Hindwing with a transverse series of obscure postdiscal pale lunular spots; the black white-margined spots as in the male but smaller, the anterior two superposed, on the pale spots; terminal margin below vein 4 with inner and outer, and above vein 4 with single subterminal transversely linear markings. Underside: ground colour similar but paler on the basal, very much paler on the terminal halves of the wings; the markings as on the upperside, but the fasciae on the forewings and hindwings broader, more diffuse; the black subterminal spots in interspaces 1, 5 and 6 of the hindwing smaller. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male but paler.[7]

Male: Upperside the maroon brown not glossed with purple; the transverse fasciae on the forewing and the black markings on the hindwing much as in the wet-season form, but the former more obscure, more diffuse, the latter smaller. Underside as in the wet-season form but paler.[7]

Female: Upper and under sides similar to those of the wet-season, form but conspicuously paler, the contrast between the dark basal and pale terminal halves in fore prominent, the discal band on the underside of the forewing very broad, diffuse and pale, often nearly white. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen in both sexes as in the wet-season form but paler.[7]

Wingspan: 41–52 mm.[7]

Flat, very broad in the middle, tapering to both ends, clothed sparsely with short hairs; head small, not enclosed in the 2nd segment; colour light green. (Davidson & Aitken)[7]

Also clothed with hairs, and altogether so like the larva that it is difficult to note exactly when the change takes place. It is closely attached to a leaf by the tail and a girdle. (Davidson & Aitken)[7]