Polyommatus astrarche

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Orange-bordered Argus
Polyommatus astrarcheMale left, underside middle, female right.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Superfamily: Papilionoidea Family: Lycaenidae Genus: Polyommatus Species: P. astrarche
Binomial name
Polyommatus astrarche Bergsträsser,1779

The Orange-bordered Argus( Polyommatus astrarche) is a species of lycaenid butterfly found in many parts of the Palearctic region.

[edit] Description

See glossary for terms used

Upperside is brown with a silky sheen in certain lights. Fore wing has a black spot on the discocellulars. Hind wing has an anticiliary black line. Fore and hind wings have a subterminal, transverse, slightly curved series of black spots, inwardly bordered by a transverse series of orange-red lunules; cilia white, spotted inwardly at the terminations of the veins with black. Underside : ground-colour a warm dark grey. Fore wing has a spot on the discocellulars, a transverse, discal, bisinuate series of seven spots, a transverse, subterminal, slightly curved series of six spots and an anticiliary line, black; the discocellular spot and the discal spots encircled with white, the subterminal spots inwardly bordered by larger orange-red spots, which in turn are inwardly margined narrowly with black, the anterior ones with specks of white again on their inner sides; outwardly the spots of the subterminal series are conspicuously bordered with white; cilia grey. Hindwing has a transverse, subbasal series of four spots, followed by a spot in middle of interspace 7, another at the base of interspace 6, a speck on the discocellulars, and an outwardly oblique, somewhat sinuate posterior, discal series of five spots, black, all enclosed with white which colour forms a comparatively large postdiscal patch; beyond is a strongly curved series of nine orange-red larger spots succeeded by a subterminal similarly curved series of seven black spots on a white ground, and an anticiliary black line; the tornal three of the orange-red series of spots are coalescent; cilia white, dusky grey at the terminations of the veins. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen brown, the shafts of the antenna ringed with white; beneath: the club of the antennae, the palpi, thorax and abdomen white, the palpi with some stiff black hairs.^[1]

[edit] Distribution

The Palearctic Region (except the Polar area). The Himalayas: Chitral, Kashmir, Western Himalayas, Baluchistan.

[edit] References

1. ^ Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2