Euchrysops cnejus

Euchrysops cnejus, the gram blue, is a small butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. It is found from India[2] to Australia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798.[1]

Gram blue
Male
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Tribe:	Polyommatini
Genus:	Euchrysops
Species:	E. cnejus
Binomial name
Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius 1798)[1]
Synonyms
Hesperia cnejus Fabricius, 1798 Lycaena pandia Kollar, [1844] Lycaena patala Kollar, [1844] Lycaena monica Reakirt, 1866 Lycaena samoa Herrich-Schäffer, 1869 Cupido amazara Kirby, 1871 Catochrysops hapalina Butler, 1883 Catochrysops trifracta Butler, 1884 Catochrysops theseus Swinhoe, 1885 Euchrysops suffusus Rothschild, 1915 Euchrysops cnidus Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 Catochrysops vitiensis Butler, 1883 Plebejus luzonicus Röber, 1886

Description

Upperside (male)

Male upperside: pale purplish suffused with a bluish shade, apparent only in certain lights. Forewing: a slender black anteciliary line edged on the inner side narrowly with fuscous dark brown, broader at apex than at the tornal angle. 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.[3]

Upperside (female)

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.[3]

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.[3][4]

Distribution

The species is spread throughout India[2] except at very high elevations and is widely distributed in the Malayan subregion; extending to Australia and the South Sea Islands.[3][1]

Larva

Larva

"Of the usual Lycaenid shape .... the head small, black, shining, retractile. Colour of body pale green with darker green or reddish dorsal and subdorsal lines, the latter coalesced into a broad band between the eleventh and last segments. The entire surface of the body covered with minute white tubercles, there are also a few scattered white hairs. The segmental constrictions shallow. Spiracles black. Extensile organs on the twelfth segment small. The larva is broader than high in its higher part, increasing in width to fourth segment, from thence to the flattened anal segment of about uniform width. Bred by me in Calcutta on Phaseolus trilobus. Mr. W. O. Taylor reports that the larva feeds in Orissa on Dolichos catjang, Roxb. Dr. A. Forel identifies the ant in Calcutta as Camponotus rubripes subspecies compressus" (de Niceville.)[3]

Pupa

"Very pale green, the abdominal segments somewhat opaque; of the usual Lycaenid shape, no distinctive structure or markings. Head-case square, thorax slightly humped, slightly constricted before the first abdominal segment, a dark dorsal line extending the whole length; spiracles black; entire surface smooth not hairy." (de Niceville.)[3]

Subspecies

• E. c. cnejus
• E. c. cnidus Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 (Torres Strait Islands, northern Australia to Southport, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons)
• E. c. vitiensis (Butler, 1883) (Fiji)
• E. c. luzonicus (Röber, 1886) (Sangihe, Talaud, Philippines: Palawan, Cebu, Leyte, Luzon, Tawitawi)

See also

• List of butterflies of India
• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

References

1. Savela, Markku (December 25, 2018). "Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius, 1798)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
2. 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. 143. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Bingham, Charles Thomas (1907). Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 2. pp. 415–416.
4. 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. 40–42.CS1 maint: date format (link)

External links

• Takanami, Yusuke & Seki, Yasuo (2001). "Genus Euchrysops". A Synonymic List of Lycaenidae from the Philippines. Archived from the original on September 8, 2001 – via Internet Archive. Images.