Albulina pheretes
| Mountain Blue | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Albulina pheretes Male upperside on left.Female upperside right. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Albulina |
| Species: | A. pheretes |
| Binomial name | |
| Albulina pheretes (Hübner, 1805) | |
The Mountain Blue (Polyommatus pheretes)[1] is a small butterfly found in the Himalayas[2] that belongs to the Lycaenids or blues family.
Description
Race lehana, Moore
Male upperside is purplish blue with dark blue at the bases of the wings. Forewings and hindwings with somewhat obscure, slender, black, anticiliary lines, followed by very full, snow-white cilia. The underside is grey, pale plumbeous brown on the discs of the wings, the bases of both forewings and hindwings irrorated with bluish-green scales. Forewing has a narrow transverse black lunule on the discocellulars and a transverse curved discal series of five white spots, each spot centred with black. Hindwing has a streak in the cell, a spot above it near the costa and a discal series of five spots, of which the posterior four are in a very oblique line directed outwards, and the upper or fifth is much larger, placed much further inwards above the apex of the cell. In the type and a few others the discal spots are seven or eight in number, and smaller than in the majority of specimens. Antennae dark brown, the shafts as usual ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen clothed with bluish hairs; the palpi fringed with black hairs, thorax and abdomen white.
The female is similar to the male, but on the upperside the ground colour is rich brown, the bases of the wings only blue. Underside: ground colour and markings as in the male. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male but the latter three brown, not clothed with bluish hairs.[3]
Has a wingspan of 28–30 mm. Found in the western Himalayas (Ladakh, Kashmir) at elevations from 8000 to 12,000 feet.
Race asiatica, Elwes
Forewing much more pointed at the apex, termen straighter, wing altogether proportionately shorter than in race lehana. Other differences are as follows: The underside of the male has a rich metallic dark blue, quite different from the purplish blue of the parent form or of race lehana. Underside has the ground colour and markings similar to those of lehana, but on the forewing the discal spots are generally entirely absent or reduced to one or two, while the hindwing is irrorated with metallic greenish-blue scales for two-thirds of its length from base. Otherwise similar.
Female has the upperside much as in race lehana but the underside with the obsolescence of the markings on the forewing and the irroration of metallic greenish-blue scales on the hindwing as in its own male.[3] Has a wingspan of 25–27 mm. Found in Sikkim in the Chumbi valley, from an elevation of 12,000 to 15,000 feet.
Taxonomy
The butterfly was earlier known as Polyommatus pheretes Moore.[2] The butterfly taxonomy is under revision.[4]
Cited references
- ↑ Card for pheretes in LepIndex. Accessed 14 October 2006.
- 1 2 Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. p. 228, ser no H22.14.
- 1 2 Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
- ↑ Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera Page on Faunis genus.
See also
References
- Beccaloni, George; Scoble, Malcolm; Kitching, Ian; Simonsen, Thomas; Robinson, Gaden; Pitkin, Brian; Hine, Adrian; Lyal, Chris. "The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex)". Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
- Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.