Polyommatus loewii

Large jewel blue
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Polyommatus
Species:	P. melampus
Binomial name
Polyommatus loewii (Zeller, 1847)[1]
Synonyms
Albulina loewii (Zeller, 1847) Lycaena loewii Zeller, 1847 Polyommatus (Albulina) loewii Polyommatus loewii Albulina empyrea (Freyer, [1851]) Lycaena loewi var. gigas Staudinger, 1871 Albulina robusta (Turati & Fiori, 1930) Lycaena löwii germaniciae Pfeiffer, 1932 Albulina minimus (Junge & Rose, 1978) Polyommatus loewii afghana Howarth & Povolny, 1976 Polyommatus loewii antilibanotica Hemming, 1929 Lampides uranicola Walker, 1870 Polyommatus loewi lockharti Hemming, 1929 Lampides ferrana Walker, 1870 Lycaena hissarica Shchetkin, 1963

Polyommatus loewii, the large jewel blue, ^{[2] [3]} is a species of blue butterfly found in South East Asia.

Range

The butterfly occurs in Sri Lanka and in India from South India to Orissa, and, in the north from Murree to Kumaon ^[4] The range extends to Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Java.^[2]

Subspecies

• Polyommatus loewii loewii (Armenia: highland)
• Polyommatus loewii afghana (Howarth & Povolny, 1976) (Afghanistan)
• Polyommatus loewii antilibanotica (Hemming, 1929)
• Polyommatus loewii dzhemagati (Sheljuzhko, 1934) (Caucasus Major)
• Polyommatus loewii hissarica (Shchetkin, 1963) (Ghissar)
• Polyommatus loewii laura (Evans, 1932)
• Polyommatus loewii schwingenschussi (Pfeiffer, 1937) (Talysh Mountains)
• Polyommatus loewii uranicola (Walker, 1870) (Jordan, Egypt, the Sinai, the Negev, central Saudi Arabia, Oman)

Status

Not Rare.^[4]

See also

• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

Cited references

1. Polyommatus, funet.fi
2. Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera Page on Polyommatus genus.
3. Card for Polyommatus loewii in LepIndex. Accessed 14 Jun 2007.
4. Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no H85.16, pp 299.

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.
• Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
• Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
• Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera .
• Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.