This beautiful member of the haliphron group inhabits the island of Sri Lanka.
As the country's forests are being cut down to give way for cultivation, darsius becomes increasingly rarer. Once a common butterfly that could be observed even in the lowland cities today survive mainly in the mountains. It has been recorded from sea-level to 2,000 m, but is now seldom seen in the lowlands.
T. darsius is most active during morning and early afternoon.
Much has been said about the scent of darsius. While the female smells
like musty straw, the male has an odour which has been compared to that of
sassafras, cinnamon, Canada-balsam, rosemary or even rose-scented hair-oil.
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| Auctor: | Gray, [1853] |
| Syn.: | amphimedon Doubleday, 1846 nec Cramer, 1779 |
| Syn.: | cambyses Ehrmann, 1904 |
| Syn.: | isis Ehrmann, 1926 |
| Distribution: | Sri Lanka |
| Etymology: | |
| Notes: |
| Described forms: | |
| mf. cambyses Ehrmann, 1904 | |
| mf. clementinae Sala, 1992 | |
| ff. donae Sala, 1992 | |
| ff. melanie Rumbucher & Schaffler, 2004 |
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© Tony Nagypal, 2000-2004