| Swinhoe's Hedge Blue | |
|---|---|
| L. m. musinoides | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Celastrina |
| Species: | C. musina |
| Binomial name | |
| Celastrina musina (Snellen, 1892) |
|
The Swinhoe's Hedge Blue (Celastrina musina)[1] is a small butterfly found in India[2] that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.
Contents |
Male underside: pale lilacine grey. Fore wing: costa bordered by a slender line, termen by a comparatively broad and even band of dusky black, the latter diffuse along its inner margin. Hind wing: costal margin diffusely dusky black, termen with a slender black anticiliary line; dorsal margin narrowly pale. Underside: white with a slight tinge of blue. Fore wing: a short line on the discocellulars, a postdiscal transverse series of six abbreviated lines pointing obliquely outwards and en echelon one with the other, the uppermost shifted well inwards, followed by a sub-terminal series of transverse spots enclosed between an inner subterminal, lunular, transverse line and an outer anticiliary slender line, pale brown. Hind wing: a transverse subbasal series of three, sometimes four, minute spots and a spot beyond on the dorsum, with a larger subcostal spot near the apex of the wing, black; a short slender line on the discocellulars and some irregular dots on the disc pale brown; terminal markings as on the fore wing. Cilia of both fore and hind wings whitish. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, the antennae ringed with white beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.
Female upperside, fore wing: a broad border to the costal and terminal margins dusky black, the rest of the w ing iridescent light blue; on the costa the lower edge of the black traverses the middle of the cell, on the apex and termen it occupies the outer fourth of the wing. Hind wing: anterior third dusky black, the rest of the wing pale lilacine glossed with iridescent blue in certain lights; a sub-terminal series of dusky black spots that more or less coalesces with an anticiliary dusky black hue and is enclosed on the inner side by a slender similarly-coloured lunular line. The underside, antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.[3]
The butterfly was earlier known as Lycaenopsis musina Swinhoe[2].
It is found in Assam, India[2].