| Actual Image
Plains Cupid Blue (36)
ramthakur
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3014 W: 112 N: 7998]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (25857) | The Plains Cupid, Edales pandava, is a species of blue butterfly found in India.
Description
Wet-season brood: Male upperside: lavender-blue. Fore wing: costa narrowly, terminal margin more broadly fuscous brown, the latter with in addition an anticiliary black line; cilia light brown transversely traversed close to but not at their bases by a dark brown line. Hind wing: costa narrowly fuscous brown; a sub-terminal series of black spots outwardly edged by a white line; the spot in interspace 2 the largest and inwardly crowned more or less broadly with ochraceous yellow; an anticiliary black line and the cilia as on the fore wing. Underside: greyish brown. Fore and hind wings: the following transverse darker brown markings on each wing, the markings edged on the inner and outer sides with white lines—a short bar across the discocellulars, a discal catenulated band, the posterior two elongate spots of which on the fore wing are en Echelon, while the band on the hind wing in bisinuate and is capped anteriorly near the costa by a round black spot encircled with white; the above are followed by maculated inner and outer subterminal bands, which on the hind wing are curved and more or less interrupted on the tornal area by a comparatively large round black spot ill interspace 2 and a smaller similar spot in interspace 1, both spots inwardly crowned with ochraceous; the white edgings on the inner side to both sub-terminal bands on the hind wing are more or less lunular. In addition on the same wing there is a sub-basal curved row of four white-encircled spots, of which the anterior two and the spot on the dorsum are black, the other dark brown. Antennae black, shafts ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen brown, the head and thorax clothed with bluish hairs; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen whitish.
Female upperside: brown. Fore wing: shot with blue from base outwards for a little over half its length down its middle, this blue irroration not extended to the costal margin; a slender anticiliary black line. Hind wing: a touch of blue iridescence near base; terminal markings much as on the forewing but the subterminal spots larger and not extended beyond interspace 6 ; in addition post-discally there is a lightening of the shade of the ground-colour, between which paler area and the subterminal spots the ground-colour assumes the form of a post-discal, short, transverse lunular band.
Underside as in the male, the markings slightly larger and more clearly defined. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male but slightly paler.
Dry season brood: Very similar to the same sexes of the wet-season brood, but can be recognized by the following differences:—Upperside: Male Ground-colour slightly duller; sub-terminal spots on the hind wing less clearly defined. Female: The blue shot area extended outwards on the fore wing for three-fourths of its length from base, but as in wet-season specimens not reaching the costal margin; on the hind wing the blue suffusion covers the entire medial portion of the wing from the base to the subterminal row of spots, of which latter the spot in interspace 2 is entirely without the inner ochraceous edging.
Underside: ground-colour darker than in specimens of the wet-season brood, the discocellular and discal transverse bands on both fore and hind wings broader, the terminal markings very ill-defined, the inner white edging to the inner of the two subterminal transverse bands broadened and very diffuse. On the hind wing the discocellular and discal bands coalesce and form an ill-defined diffuse medial cloud on the wing.
Distribution
Peninsular India south of the outer ranges of the Himalayas, but not in the desert tracts and somewhat local; Ceylon: Assam: Burma; extending into the Malayan Subregion.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilades_pandava
PS:
I am adding this a day later, mainly after reading Bob's critique.
1. I posted this picture yesterday from my workplace without exif data which normally remains on my laptop with the original raw files. It has now been added.
2. I am posting a workshop to show this Blue with its wings open so that Bob can see why the name is justified. The workshop picture is low in quality.
Thanks for looking. |
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