Monodontides musina

Monodontides musina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Monodontides
Species: M. musina
Binomial name
Monodontides musina
(Snellen, 1892)[1]
Synonyms
  • Lycaena musina Snellen, 1892
  • Celastrina musina
  • Cyaniris candaules de Nicéville, 1895
  • Cyaniris lugra H. H. Druce, 1895
  • Lycaenopsis musinoides Swinhoe, 1910
  • Cyaniris parishii Rhé-Philippe, 1911
  • Cyaniris musina pelides Fruhstorfer, 1910

Monodontides musina, Swinhoe's Hedge Blue,[2] is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It is found in South-east Asia, including India.[3]

Description

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.[4]

Taxonomy

The butterfly was earlier known as Lycaenopsis musina Swinhoe.[3]

Subspecies

M. m. musinoides

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monodontides musina.
Wikispecies has information related to: Monodontides musina
  1. ↑ Monodontides at funet
  2. ↑ Card for musina in LepIndex. Accessed 14 October 2006.
  3. 1 2 Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no H21.18, pp 221-226
  4. ↑ Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2
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