Delias callista  Jordan 1911 green.png

Subspecies and range of Delias callista :

. callista Jordan 1911 - Mt Goliath, Papua

callipareia Roepke 1955 - Ibele River, Papua

porquiaensis Yagishita 1993 - Western & Southern Highlands Provs., Papua New Guinea

miyashitai Yagishita 1993 - Mulia, Central Mtns, Papua

callipulchra Gerrits & van Mastrigt 1992 - Tembagapura, Papua

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Notes on Delias callista :

One of the most beautiful Delias species with a lot of forms and variations. 

Characterised by the yellow submarginal spots and by the red stripe which crosses the cell near the base and extends along vein 2 for its proximal half of the underside hindwing.


Original description : Jordan - Novitates Zoologicae xviii (1911) - "Male/Female. Alis posticis area centrali paginae inferioris aurantiaca (Male) vel luteoalba (Female) usque ad ramum costalem producta versus basin in et pone cellulam rubro marginata, linea postmediana rubra lunata extus lunulis albis signata, macula costali basali flava."
The sexes are remarkable different.


Male: Upperside white. The black costal border of the fore wing does not enter the cell; the discocellulars are black, but this bar is a mere line, being very much thinner than in Delias iltis; the black outer border does not quite extend down to the subcostal fork and is a little wider below the centre of the wing than in D. iltis. There are two small white subapical dots. The black border of the hind wing is very thin, being restricted to the fringe and the extreme edge of the wing and slightly widened at the veins.


The underside of the fore wing is white. The discocellular bar is broad and triangular, but less broad than in D. iltis. Before the apex there is a curved row of three orange spots, the row being continued along the distal margin by some minute dots. The hind wing has the black markings almost exactly as in D. iltis, but the central area and the submarginal spots are a beautiful orange colour. The central area has a somewhat diffuse white border, between which and the black stripe there is a red border proximally in the cell and below it; the portion of central area which lies in front of the cell is costally pointed and externally incurved, being much smaller than in D. iltis on account of the greater development of the black, the black lines being broadly united at the costal margin; a small ovate discocellular spot is white. the black discal line is produced outward at the veins, the red line following it being lunate. This red line is outwardly bordered by white lunules, upon which follow the orange submarginal spots, which are larger than the corresponding (white) spots of D. iltis; as a rule these spots are more or less reddish at the white lunules. the black border of the wing is thinner than in D. iltis.


Female: There are two colour-varieties of this sex; in the one the ground-colour of both wings above and of the fore wing beneath is white, while the fore wing is yellow in the other above and beneath, the upperside of the hind wing being anteriorly also more or less yellow. The two forms are otherwise alike.
Upperside: The black border of the fore wing enters the apex of the cell, the black discocellular bar being completely united with it, some specimens bearing a small white spot below the costal margin as an indication of the interspace existing in the male between the bar and the band; the marginal band is 6mm. wide at the submedian vein. There are three small subapical dots. The marginal band of the hind wing is 7mm. wide in the centre, being posteriorly a little broader than anteriorly; it is as sharply defined as on the fore wing, and does not bear any light spots, its inner edge being slightly diffuse posteriorly on account of the long white hairs of the abdominal area.


On the underside the black marginal band of the fore wing is narrower posteriorly than above and its edge less regular, the subcostal spot situated beyond the cell is larger, and there are subapical orange spots as in the male, but somewhat larger. the hind wing differs from that of the male in the much greater extent of black, and a corresponding reduction of the light markings. Moreover, the central area is white with a peculiar buffish tone, and the band or red and white lunules is more distal and the orange spots at its outer side are reduced to two or three spots before the anal angle and more or less indistinct traces of them farther forward."