Celastrina melaena
| Metallic hedge blue | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Museum specimen. Malaya. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Celastrina |
| Species: | C. melaena |
| Binomial name | |
| Celastrina melaena (Doherty, 1889) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Celastrina melaena, the metallic hedge blue, [1] is a small butterfly found in India[2] that belongs to the Lycaenids or blues family.
Description
Male upperside: deep brown. Fore wing: with the basal half dark blue, dull in certain lights, rich, shining and iridescent in others; this colour does not reach the costa, apex or termen where the ground-colour forms a broad border to the blue. Hind wing: uniform brown; in certain lights iridescent blue over the basal third, but the blue does not reach either the costa or the dorsum. Underside; dull greyish-white. Fore wing: with the following fuscous-brown markings:—a short transverse line on the discoccllulars; a postdiscal transverse series of elongate spots or extremely short bars, the posterior three placed slightly m echelon, the one nearest the costa shifted well inwards; beyond this a transverse unbroken line, a subterminal series of small spots and an anticiliary dark line; costal margin somewhat broadly shaded with very pale brownish-grey. Hind wing: a minute spot on dorsum near base of wing, a series of three subbasal spots placed obliquely across the wing and beyond them a much larger round subcostal spot in interspace 7, black; a short dusky brown line on the discocellulars, a brown spot above it in base of interspace 6; a transverse posterior discal series of five spots also brown, the upper four in a slight curve, the lowest shifted outwards out of lino with the others; lastly, terminal transverse markings muoh as on the fore wing, only the fuscous brown Hue on the inner side of the subterminal series of spots replaced by a series of connected slender lunules. Cilia of fore and hind wings grey. Antenna), head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, the antennco ringed with white; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen greyish white.[3]
Taxonomy
The butterfly was earlier known as Lycaenopsis melaena (Rhe Phil).[2]
Range
It is found from Assam to Manipur in India.[2] and in Sumatra, Malaya, Indo-China, Burma, Thailand and Laos.
Subspecies
- Callenya melaena melaena (Manipur, Burma, northern Thailand, Laos)
- Callenya melaena shonen (Taiwan)
Cited references
See also
References
- Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors). 2003. The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex [accessed 14 October 2006].
- Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India