Logania distanti

Dark Mottle
Museum specimen from Malaya
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Logania
Species: L. distanti
Binomial name
Logania distanti
Semper, 1889
Synonyms

Logania massalia Doherty, 1891

The Dark Mottle (Logania distanti)[1] is a small but striking butterfly found in India that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

Description

Male

Upperside dark brown. Fore wing: a medial dull whitish spot at base of interspace 3 extended upwards on to vein 4 and below into interspace 2. Hind wing; uniform, immaculate. Underside: very pale dull brown, with darker brown mottlings and striae, that on the fore wing are absent on a broad streak from base outwards along the basal half of the dorsum, this area pale brown without markings; a dark obscure spot at apex of cell and an incomplete similarly obscure dark transverse discal band. On the hind wing the mottlings coalesce and form three or four very ill-defined, obscure, transverse, somewhat broad bands. Head, thorax and abdomen dark brown. Sex-mark: the base of vein 4 swollen and bare of scales.

Female

"Above black, a round dull white discal area on the fore wing from just above the upper median (vein 4) almost to the submedian vein (vein 1). Below irregularly speckled and variegated; fore wing with the costal and apical parts ochreous brown, the rest blackish. Hind wing also tinged with ochreous, a submarginal dark area, and obscure dark transverse bands. Hind wing not angled, the margin entire." (Doherty quoted in Bingham)[2]

Range

Assam - Burma, Malaya, Borneo?, Thailand, Laos, Sumatra.[1]

Taxonomy

The butterfly is also referred to as Logania massalia Doherty, 1891.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Page on Marrku Savela's site for genus Logania (Lycaenidae).
  2. ↑ Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2
  3. ↑ Card for species massalia in LepIndex. Accessed 23 March 2007.

External links

See also