Ypthima huebneri (Common 4-Ring)
Ypthima huebneri (Common 4-ring)
I chanced upon this beautiful butterfly yesterday morning as I walked in our garden admiring the many colorful flowers greeting me.
Could not believe my eyes when I counted the number of eyespots on the underside hindwings of this beautiful butterfly…one, two, three, four! Wow! It is definitely a newcomer to our garden as I remembered vividly photographing one species with 5 eyespots, a Common 5-ring butterfly recently.
So I dashed into our home to get my digital camera, a Canon Powershot A60 and rushed back outside. To my extreme joy, it was still around the Cat’s Whiskers plant where I last saw it as if waiting to pose for me! And I happily went on clicking and succeeded in getting 14 lovely shots altogether. 
It is greyish brown on the upperside with a large sub-apical ocellus on the forewings and two smaller visible ocelli on the hindwings. On the reverse side of its pale buff brown undersurfaces with fine dark striations, you can spot a large yellow-ringed black ocellus on each of the forewings. And, on the underside of each hindwing will prominently feature four smaller rings (eyespots), that give this butterfly its common name. With a wing span of 3-4cm, it has a feeble flight and usually found close to the ground.
Some may say that it is too dull to be admired! Not me, I think they’re as attractive as any other butterfly. What a joyful fun-filled morning I had, following it as it fluttered around between the Cat’s Whiskers and the mass of lavender-colored False Heather nearby! What a blessed day! 
Taxonomy:
- Scientific name: Ypthima huebneri
- Common name: Common 4-ring
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
- Family: Nymphalidae
- Subfamily: Satyrinae
- Genus: Ypthima
- Species: Y. huebneri
Range: India to Sundaland
Habitat: Grass patches or gardens
Food: Gramineae (grasses)
More information at Wikipedia.
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- Ingenious mimicry by the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes)
- Elymnias hypermnestra agina (Common Palmfly)
- Attacus atlas, the largest moth in the world!
- Hypolimnas bolina jacintha (Jacintha Eggfly), the dancing queen!
Tags: butterflies/moths, insects, our garden, wildlife
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