Philiris baiteta Müller 2014

Philiris baiteta is a species of butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Papua New Guinea (Western and Madang provinces) and Papua (Snow Mountains).

The length of the forewings is about 14 mm. The ground colour of the forewings is dark uniform brown. The underside is pale yellow cream, grading through white towards the inner margin where the area between the inner margin and vein 2 and the cubitus are light grey brown. The hindwings are dark uniform brown, with a large cream-white apical area.

♂ (Figs 29–31): Forewing length 14 mm, antenna 8 mm (holotype). Head, palpus and thorax dark brown dorsally, white ventrally, abdomen dark brown dorsally, white ventrally, frons dark grey with white eye ring; legs white with black areas on tibiae; antenna shaft black, ringed conspicuously with white between segments, club wholly black. Fore wing termen nearly straight, inner margin straight, apex pointed; upperside with ground colour dark uniform brown, cilia brown; underside pale yellow-cream, grading through white towards inner margin where the area between the inner margin and vein 2 and the cubitus are light grey-brown, cilia dark brown. Hind wing slightly acute at tornus; upperside with ground colour dark uniform brown, a large cream-white apical area extending from base to beyond vein 6 into space 5 but not connected to termen; cilia dark brown except at apex where they are cream; underside uniformly pale yellow, cilia as in upperside. Male genitalia (Fig. 64): Vinculum and tegumen ring rather rectangular, sociuncus rather broad, square-shaped, socii with lateral margin square-shaped, dorsally rounded, socii not obviously separated by sinus, saccus tapered posteriorly, brachium tapered dorsally; valvae symmetrical, bulbous dorsally at base but flat, boat-shaped laterally, with long toothed appendage ventro-posteriorly and a shorter appendage dorso-posteriorly; phallus with pre-zonal section approximately equal in length to post-zonal section; zone of compacted cornuti in post-zonal section, vesica apically flanged. ♀: (Figs 32, 33), Forewing length 14.5 mm, antenna 8 mm. Similar to male but larger, wings much more rounded. Forewing upperside with diffuse patch of cream white in median area between veins 2 and 4; forewing underside with brown area along inner margin not reaching termen. Hindwing upperside with cream-white patch slightly more extensive, reaching further into space 5.

Western and Madang Provinces, Papua New Guinea; Snow Mountains (Papua), Indonesia.