Nacaduba pavana

Small Four-line Blue
Nacaduba pavana Underside.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Nacaduba
Species: N. pavana
Binomial name
Nacaduba pavana
(Horsfield, 1828).

The Nacaduba pavana, also known as the Small Four-line Blue or Singapore Four-line Blue, [1][2] is a species of lycaenid butterfly found in Southeast Asia.

Description

See glossary for terms used

Male upperside: purple with a frosted silvery-blue sheen very much as in N. macrophthalma. Fore wing : a slender black anticiliary line. Hind wing: costal and dorsal margins somewhat broadly dull brown, an anticiliary black line as on the fore wing; the subterminal black spots in interspaces 1 and 2 of the underside apparent in most specimens by transparency. Underside: groundcolour and markings similar to those of N. macrophthalma but far more slender and more neatly defined. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in N. macrophthalma.

Female upperside, fore wing: costa broadly, apex and termen still more broadly brown; a narrow edging of pale brown along the dorsal margin ; rest of the wing grey, shot with iridescent blue in certain lights. Hind wing: pale brown, much paler than the brown on the fore wing; base very obscurely shot with iridescent blue ; costal and dorsal margins brownish white; a transverse subterminal series of black spots edged inwardly and outwardly with slender white lines, two minute spots in interspace 1 geminate, that in interspace 2 large, these three crowned inwardly beyond the white edging with an additional dusky spot. Underside: very similar to that of the male, ground-colour paler, transverse white strigae broader. Both male and female have the basal area of the fore wing within the transverse white strigss lining the inner side of the discocellulars immaculate, as in N. macrophthalma and N. kerriana.[3]

Distribution

Bingham (1907) reports the butterfly from Sikkim; Bhutan; Assam; Cachar; Burma; Tenasserim; the Andamans. Described originally from Java.[3]

As per Savela the butterfly ranges from Tibet, India - Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Langkawi, Sumatra, Philippines (Mindanao) and Sulawesi.[1]

Taxonomy

The butterfly has five subspecies:[1]

The Violet Four-line Blue (Nacaduba pavana vajuva)

The subspecies Nacaduba pavana vajuva Frühstorfer 1916, which is known as the Violet Four-line Blue, occurs in India, Myanmar and Thailand.[1] It was earlier considered a separate species.[4]

Cited references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera Page on Nacaduba genus.
  2. ↑ Card for pavana in LepIndex. Accessed 07 Jul 2007.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2
  4. ↑ Card for vajuva in LepIndex. Accessed 07 Jul 2007.

See also

References

External links