Euchrysops cnejus cnejus (Fabricius, 1798)

Malayalam Name	:	പയർ നീലി
Common Name	:	Oriental Gram Blue
Order	:	Lepidoptera
Super Family	:	Papilionoidae (Butterflies)
Family	:	Lycaenidae
Sub Family	:	Polyommatinae
Synonims	:	Euchrysops suffusus

DISTRIBUTION

Species found in Indo-Malayan Realm. The sub species Euchrysops cnejus cnejus distributed in India.

STATUS:

HABITAT

HABITS

IDENTIFICATION FEATURES

Small Blue butterfly with wingspan about 25-35 mm.

Male upperside: pale purplish suffused with a bluish shade, apparent only in certain lights. Hindwing: a subterminal black spot in interspace 1 and another similar spot in interspace 2, the two spots subequal in size, edged on the outer side by a white thread and on the inner side with ochraceous, more prominent in the spot in interspace 2; a slender anteciliary black line with an inner narrow margin of diffuse fuscous brown. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings pale; tail at apex of vein 2 of the hindwing black tipped with white.

Underside: silver grey, in some with a pale yellowish, in others with a faint brown tint. Forewings and hindwings: each with the following brown spots edged slenderly on either side with white: a transverse elongate spot on the discocellulars; a transverse discal series of spots straight on the fore, bisinuate on the hindwing, on the latter wing capped near the costa by a prominent while-encircled round black spot; an inner and an outer subterminal transverse series of spots, of which the inner subterminal series on the hindwing is lunular, the outer rounded, the white edging to both series being also lunular; both wings have very slender anteciliary black lines, and the hindwing in addition a transverse curved subbasal series of generally three often four white-encircled spots of which the spot nearest the costa is prominent and block, the others brown. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, paler on the last, the shafts of the antennae speckled with white, the thorax with a little purplish pubescence; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.

Female upperside: dark brown. Forewing: a posteromedial somewhat triangular area from the base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the wing blue and a slender jet-black anteciliary line. Hindwing: posteriorly from about the level of the middle of the cell slightly suffused with blue from base outwards for about two-thirds the length of the wing; a transverse, postdiscal, incomplete series of sagittate (arrowhead-shaped) white spots pointing inwards, followed by a subterminal transverse series of round spots, the anterior three dark brown encircled with bluish white, the tornal two jet-black, subequal, larger than the others, edged inwardly with bright ochraceous, outwardly by very slender white lines; finally, a jet-black slender anteciliary line. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings conspicuously white. Underside: ground colour and markings as in the male, the tornal two black spots touched outwardly with metallic bluish-green scaling. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male, the shafts of the antennae conspicuously ringed with white.

SIMILAR SPECIES:

LARVAL HOST PLANTS

Fabaceae, Acacia spp., A. caesia, Vigna cylindrica, V. radiata, V. trilobata, V. unguiculata, Butea monosperma, Cajanus cajan, Canavalia ensiformis, Lablab purpureus, Desmodium oojeinense, Paracalyx scariosus, Phaseolus spp., Pisum sativum, Pueraria phaseoloides, (Fabaceae).

LIFE CYCLE

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