Allotinus horsfieldi

Common Darkie
Male. Museum specimen from Malaya
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Allotinus
Species: A. horsfieldi
Binomial name
Allotinus horsfieldi
(Moore, 1857)
Synonyms
  • Miletus horsfieldi Moore, 1857
  • Allotinus horsfieldii (Moore); Piepers & Snellen, 1918
  • Paragerydus horsfieldi (Moore); Distant, 1884
  • Allotinus horsfieldi permagnus Fruhstorfer, 1913
  • Allotinus horsfieldi nessus Corbet, 1939

The Common Darkie (Allotinus horsfieldi) is a small butterfly found in India[1][2] that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

Range

It is found in Assam in India to Myanmar.[1] Also Chittagong Hill Tracts.[3] As per Savela the butterfly occurs from Thailand, Langkawi, Malay Peninsula, Tioman, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Bangka, Batu, Celebes and Sundaland.[4]

Status

Common.[1][3]

Description

A small butterfly, 38–44 mm in wingspan. The upper forewing in both sexes has a pale elongated oval discal patch. This may be larger and more diffuse in females. The butterflies are speckled below.[3]

Museum diagnosis

See glossary for terms used

Male Upperside: brown. Fore wing: an elongate oval pale patch beyond apex of cell. Hind wing: uniform, immaculate. Underside: dull white. Both fore and hind wings with numerous short, slender, transverse strigae and minute dots, brown. Fore wing: dorsal area near base below the cell but not further outwards more or less free of spots and strigae; a narrow brown transverse spot across cell near the base, another across the middle, and a third of the apex of the same; a postdiscal, sinuate, irregular, macular, transverse, broad brownish line followed by a subterminal series of similarly-coloured minute spots. Hind wing: two or three very broken similar transverse broad curved lines, sometimes clearly marked and the detached portions indicating a definite band, in other specimens very irregular and out of line with one another; this is followed by a subterminal series of minute brown dots as on the fore wing. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen concolorous with the wings; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen more or less speckled with whitish.[5]

Illustration from Fauna of British India - Butterflies

Female. Similar, but in all specimens I have seen invariably smaller. Underside: ground-colour of the same brown shade as in the male, the pale postcellular patch on fore wing replaced by a diffuse medial patch that spreads into the cell. Hind wing : as in the male. Underside: also similar in ground-colour and markings to that of the male, but the markings broader, more clearly defined, and less macular. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.[5]

Taxonomy

The butterfly was earlier known[1] and is still classified by some authorities[4] as Allotinus horsfieldii Moore.

Habits

The butterfly inhabits low-lying jungle in very wet regions. The males are fond of sitting on the tops of leaves not very high off the ground and making short circular flights. The females flutter about amongst the bundergrowth and bushes at forest edges. The butterfly has also been recorded by one observer to settle over hosts of Greenflies (Aphids), tickle them with the proboscis and feed on the exudations.[3]

Subspecies

Allotinus horsfieldi permagnus

Cited references

  1. 1 2 3 4 Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no H6.3, pg 212.
  2. ↑ Card for horsfieldii in LepIndex. Accessed 31 December 2006.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, pg 253 & 255.
  4. 1 2 Page on Marrku Savela's site for genus Allotinus (Lycaenidae).
  5. 1 2 Bingham, C. T. (1907) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2.

See also

References

Print

Online

External links

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