Lampides lacteata

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Milky Cerulean

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Papilionoidea
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Lampides
Species:	L. lacteata

Binomial name

Lampides lacteata
De Nicéville 1895

The Milky Cerulean (Lampides lacteata) is a small butterfly found in India that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

[edit] Description

Male Upperside: a uniform pale purplish blue slightly paler than in L. elpis. Fore and hind wings: very slender black anticiliary lines. Fore wing: narrowly fuscous at apex; hind wing: a very slender terminal white thread before the anticiliary black line and a small black subterrainal spot in interspace 1 edged inwardly with white, above which is a very obscure, short, transverse fuscous line. Cilia of both wings brown, with on the hind wing a white line at the base; tail black tipped with white. Underside: pale uniform greyish brown; discal and inner markings on both fore and hind wings almost identical with those of true elpis, and precisely similar to those in many varieties from Sikhim and Assam, of that form. Terminal markings on both wings differ only in the two transverse subterminal white lines which are lunular and not straight. On the hind wing these lines are not however, nearly so prominently made up of lunules as in L. subdita. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in L. elpis.

Female. Still more closely resembles the same sex of elpis, but the ground-colour on the upper side is nearly white suffused with purplish blue towards the base of the wings and the black area on the apex and terminal margin is very broad. On the underside the markings are as in its own male.^[1]