Monodontides musina

Monodontides musina, the Swinhoe's hedge blue,[2] is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in South-East Asia, including India.[3]

Monodontides musina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Lycaenidae
Genus:
Monodontides
Species:
M. musina
Binomial name
Monodontides musina
(Snellen, 1892)[1]
Synonyms
  • Lycaena musina Snellen, 1892
  • Celastrina musina
  • Cyaniris candaules de Nicéville, 1895
  • Cyaniris lugra H. H. Druce, 1895
  • Lycaenopsis musinoides Swinhoe, 1910
  • Cyaniris parishii Rhé-Philippe, 1911
  • Cyaniris musina pelides Fruhstorfer, 1910

Description

Male underside: pale lilacine grey. Forewing: costa bordered by a slender line, termen by a comparatively broad and even band of dusky black, the latter diffuse along its inner margin. Hindwing: costal margin diffusely dusky black, termen with a slender black anteciliary line; dorsal margin narrowly pale. Underside: white with a slight tinge of blue. Forewing: a short line on the discocellulars, a postdiscal transverse series of six abbreviated lines pointing obliquely outwards and en echelon one with the other, the uppermost shifted well inwards, followed by a subterminal series of transverse spots enclosed between an inner subterminal, lunular, transverse line and an outer anteciliary slender line, pale brown. Hindwing: a transverse subbasal series of three, sometimes four, minute spots and a spot beyond on the dorsum, with a larger subcostal spot near the apex of the wing, black; a short slender line on the discocellulars and some irregular dots on the disc pale brown; terminal markings as on the forewing. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings whitish. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, the antennae ringed with white beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.

Female upperside, forewing: a broad border to the costal and terminal margins dusky black, the rest of the wing iridescent light blue; on the costa the lower edge of the black traverses the middle of the cell, on the apex and termen it occupies the outer fourth of the wing. Hindwing: anterior third dusky black, the rest of the wing pale lilacine glossed with iridescent blue in certain lights; a subterminal series of dusky black spots that more or less coalesces with an anteciliary dusky black hue and is enclosed on the inner side by a slender similarly-coloured lunular line. The underside, antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.[4]

Taxonomy

The butterfly was earlier known as Lycaenopsis musina Swinhoe.[3]

Subspecies
M. m. musinoides
  • Monodontides musina musina (Java, Malaysia)
  • Monodontides musina musinoides (Swinhoe, 1910) (north-eastern India, Burma, northern Thailand, Yunnan)
  • Monodontides musina pelides (Fruhstorfer, 1910) (southern Laos, southern Vietnam)

See also

References
  1. "Monodontides Toxopeus, 1927" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Beccaloni, G.; Scoble, M.; Kitching, I.; Simonsen, T.; Robinson, G.; Pitkin, B.; Hine, A.; Lyal, C., eds. (2003). "Celastrina musina". The Global Lepidoptera Names Index. Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  3. Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. pp. 221–226, ser no H21.18.
  4. Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
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