Zizina otis

Lesser Grass Blue
Z. o. lampa, male, Indonesia
underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Zizina
Species: Z. otis
Binomial name
Zizina otis
(Fabricius, 1787)
Subspecies
  • Z. o. labradus
  • Z. o. oxleyi

The Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis) is a species of blue butterfly found in south Asia. The Lesser Grass Blue is often misidentified as the Common Grass Blue, Zizina labradus.[1]

Description

See glossary for terms used

Male upperside

Pale violet-blue, with a silvery sheen in certain lights, fore wing: a broad brown edging along the termen, which covers in some specimens quite the outer fourth of the wing, while in others is much narrower. It is always broadest at the apex and is bounded by an anticiliary darker line, beyond which the cilia are brownish at base and white outwardly.

Hind wing: anterior or costal third to half and apex brown; a slender black anticiliary line, beyond which the cilia are as in the fore wing.

Male underside

Brownish grey. Fore wing: a short, transverse, dusky lunule on the discocellulars and a transverse, anteriorly curved, discal series of seven minute black spots, all the spots more or less rounded, the posterior two geminate, the disco-cellular lunule and each discal spot conspicuously encircled with white; the terminal markings beyond the above consist of an inner and an outer transverse subterminal series of dusky spots, each spot edged on the inner side very obscurely with dusky white, the inner line of spots lunular, the outer with the spots more or less rounded. Cilia dusky.

Hind wing : a transverse, curved, sub-basal series of four spots and an irregular transverse discal series of nine small spots black, each spot encircled narrowly with white. Of the discal spots the posterior four are placed in an outwardly oblique, slightly curved line, the middle two spots geminate; the three spots above these are placed in an oblique transverse line further outwards ; lastly, the anterior two spots are posited one over the other and shifted well inwards, just above the apex of the cell; disco-cellular lunule and terminal markings as on the fore wing, but the inner subterminal lunular line in the latter broader and more prominent. Cilia dusky. Antenna black, shafts ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen brown, with a little blue scaling; beneath: white.

Female upperside

Brown, with a more or less distinct suffusion of violet-blue at the bases of the wings, on the hind wing continued obscurely along the dorsum; both fore and hind wings with slender anticiliary lines, darker than the ground-colour.

Female underside

Ground-colour slightly darker than in the male, markings precisely similar. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but the thorax and abdomen above without any blue scaling.[2]

Distribution

Zizina otis occurs in south Asia. It was reported from Oahu (Hawaii, USA) in 2008.[3] Zizina otis labradus is found in the North Island, and the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand. While the Zizina otis oxleyi is found in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand only.

Larval host plants

The species breeds on many plants of the family Leguminosae including Alysicarpus vaginalis,Desmodium spp., Glycine max, Indigofera spp., Mimosa spp..

Gallery

www.indianwildlifephotographer.com, butterfly, nature, Zizina otis, Lesser Grass Blue
Lesser Grass Blue, Zizina otis - mating www.indianwildlifephotographer.com

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Zizina labradus". UTS Official Website. University of Technology, Sydney. 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  2. ↑ Bingham, C.T. (1907). Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2.
  3. ↑ Gee, Pat. 2008. New butterfly is discovered in Waikiki lot. Honolulu Star-Bulletin (online). Posted Oct. 14, 2008; accessed Oct. 14, 2008.

General reading

External links

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