About Hestina assimilis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Hestina assimilis, commonly known as the red ring skirt, is a large-sized butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae that occurs in Asia. It has several recognized subspecies: H. a. assimilis, H. a. formosana (Moore), H. a. shirakii (Shirozu, 1955), and H. a. f. nigrivena (Leech). The range of H. assimilis extends from eastern Tibet to most of China, and it is also present in Hong Kong and Korea. Originally, this butterfly was native to subtropical regions of southern China, Taiwan, and the area of Japan south of Kagoshima Prefecture. Due to global warming, its distribution range on the Japanese archipelago has expanded northward, and it has now been recorded as far north as the Kanto region in central Honshu, Japan. It is now commonly observed in urban areas of Japan’s Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Saitama Prefectures, and its breeding range continues to expand.
