LITTLE CALLICORE Callicore hydaspes FAUNA PARAGUAY

Callicore hydaspes (Drury 1782)
ENG: Little Callicore
ESP: Pará Mini
JIZ: Forewing long and triangular with pointed apices. Hindwing large and rounded with slightly undulated outer margin. Poses with wings folded, forewings almost completely obscured by large hindwing. Occasionally rubs wings. Can be approachable. No sexual dimorphism. FLI: Flight fast and erratic, rarely for long distances and posing suddenly.
UPP: M/F (Fig 1) Forewing mostly black with broad red medial band parallel to body. Basally both wings are electric blue, more extensively so on the hindwing. Rest of hindwing black.
UND: M/F (Fig 1&2) Underside of forewing similar to upperside but with additional yellow postmedial band, yellow basal line along the costa and indistinct turquoise apical tips. Red of underside of forewing is often partly or completely obscured by the hindwing when at rest. Hindwing pattern bold and simple with yellow base colour and central 08 pattern, the two digits having pale blue centres and being fused together with black into a single oval shape. A single broad black concentric band circles this central shape indistinctly broken at the anal angle where there are two small pale blue spots enclosed in the black. Basal area of hindwing and outer margin also thinly black.
BOD: Whole upperside of body black. Sides of thorax black with broad yellow diagonal band continuous with yellow basal costal line on underside of forewing. Underside of abdomen black with broad yellow medial line. Eyes blue. Labial palps white. Antennae black. Legs black with thin blue-white bands on feet. Proboscis black.
MMT: A small Biblid. No information available for Paraguay. Canals (2003) gives a CL of 18-21mm.
SSP: Both Paulogramma pyracmon and Callicore pygas bear a strong resemblance to this species but have more extensive red on the upper forewing and darker, less conspicuous blue on the upper hindwing. When posed with wings closed this species is easily distinguished from Paulagramma and all other Callicores by the fact that the 08 design on the middle of the ventral hindwing is fused ie it does not consist of two separate "digits" and that the outermost concentric band is wholly black, not blue with a black border. Callicores can immediately be distinguished from the "Eighty-eights" in the genus Diaethria by the yellowish and not white base colour to the underwing, and the presence of red on the dorsal forewing.
ABU: Frequent in suitable habitat.
HAB: Most common in humid forest and edge, less common in gardens in humid areas.
HOS: No information available.
Citable Reference: Smith P (2007) FAUNA Paraguay Online Handbook of Paraguayan Fauna Butterfly Species Account 17 Callicore hydaspes
Last Updated: 23 September 2007.
References:
Canals G 2003 Mariposas de Misiones - LOLA, Buenos Aires.