Ceylon Tree Nymph - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The species was first described by English entomologist John Obadiah Westwood in 1848, as Hestia iasonia. For several years it was considered to be only an island race of I. lynceus, a species found in eastern Asia. However the two species have differences in their wing shapes and in the male genitalia. It is of the Idea genus, and belongs to the Danainae subfamily of the Nymphalidae family. Its binomial name is Idea iasonia.