Arhopala bazaloides

Arhopala bazaloides, the Tamil oakblue,[1][2] is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Asia.[1][2] Also known as Lycaenidae, they are members of the superfamily Papilionoidea, the true butterflies. This family has approximately 4,700 species that are unevenly distributed throughout the world, however the distribution of the Tamil oakblue is limited only to India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.[1][2][3]

Tamil oakblue
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Arhopala
Species:
A. bazaloides
Binomial name
Arhopala bazaloides
(Hewitson, 1878)
Synonyms
  • Amblypodia bazaloides Hewitson, 1878
  • Narathura bazaloides (Hewitson, 1878)

Description
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

Male. Upperside deep purple, with fairly broad costal and outer marginal inconspicuous black borders, the costal band of the hindwing broadest, tail at the end of vein 2 of moderate length, very narrow, black, tipped with white. Cilia on both wings brown. Underside dark brown, with a purplish tint, markings darker brown, especially on the hindwing, indicated by their white edgings. Forewing with a fairly sized round spot inside the cell sub-basal, but well separated from the base, a slightly larger spot in the middle, and a still larger bar-shaped spot at the end which is edged with white only at its sides, a twisted white line hindwards, two bar-shaped spots outside the end of the cell, marked by their prominent white side edgings, the upper one just below the costa, the other beneath it, and almost attached to each other; a discal paler band of five conjoined bar-shaped spots from the costa, the last two a little inwards, and indistinct; a sub-marginal rather indistinct row of smaller spots, the lower portion of the wing paler than the rest. Hindwing with all the spots larger than usual, four round ones sub-basal, three of them in a line, the fourth towards the abdominal margin near the base, closely followed by a series of four larger spots in an outward curve, at equal distances apart right across the wing, the second from the top, inside the middle of the cell, oval; two conjoined spots at the end of the cell, closely followed by a discal band of eight conjoined spots descending from the costa in a slightly distorted shape to vein 4, where the band curves round to the abdominal margin, the spots forming the curve being lunular, a sub-marginal angular brown line, a series of very indistinct anteciliary lunules and some brown terminal suffusion.

Female. Upperside. Forewing brighter purple than in the male, with very broad blackish costal and outer marginal borders. Hindwlng nearly all suffused with blackish, the blue colour being confined more or less to the cell area. Underside as in

the male. Antennae black, tipped with orange; palpi black above, grey below; head and body blackish-brown above, white beneath.

— Charles Swinhoe, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VIII[3]

The adults are small, often brilliantly coloured with electric blues, reds, and oranges. Females lay single, sea urchin shaped eggs on host leaves or flower buds; the resulting caterpillars are typically slug shaped. In many species, caterpillars depend on ants for protection, so caterpillars produce sugary secretions that are collected by the ants, in a symbiotic relationship. Most individuals overwinter in either the egg or pupal stage.

The species was once considered as extinct from Sri Lanka, but rediscovered in 2014 from wet zone lowland forests of Sinharaja and Kanneliya.[4]

gollark: For example, via a foot keyboard, full gesture tracking instead of just a 2D keyboard, or an eye "mouse", or tongue input.
gollark: Tulpa?
gollark: There is some input bandwidth left unutilized with keyboards which you could exploit.
gollark: 60 hands or just a direct neural interface.
gollark: Don't think so.

References
  1. R.K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. p. 101. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. Savela, Markku. "Arhopala bazaloides (Hewitson, 1878)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1910–1911). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VIII. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 174–175.
  4. "This flitting beauty is no longer extinct". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 3 April 2018.


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