Miletographa drumila

Crenulate darkie
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Miletographa
Species: M. drumila
Binomial name
Miletographa drumila
(Moore, 1865)

Miletographa drumila, the crenulate darkie,[1] is a small butterfly found in India that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family.

Description

Male upperside: earthy brown. Forewing: costa at base and a broad outward discal streak from beyond apex of cell curved downwards towards but not reaching the tornal angle, dull white, diffuse at the edges; apex and termen broadly very dark blackish-brown. Hindwing: costal margin above the subcostal vein and in a line with it up to the termen similarly very dark blackish-brown, the rest of the brown colour uniform without any white. Underside, forewing: dull pale brown, costal margin and disc mottled with small catenulated spots of dark brown; cell with three short transverse bars of dark brown, the middle bar extended below the cell but not reaching the dorsum; a white curved discal band as on the upperside, but obscure, diffuse and ill-defined, merged with a pale area along the middle of the dorsum; termen broadly margined with dark rusty brown that has more or less of a mottled appearance. Hindwing: dull pale brown thickly mottled with catenulated spots and strigeo of dark rusty brown; catenulated, somewhat broken, transverse irregular bands of the latter colour cross the base, middle and apex of the cell; a similar short band is placed at right angles to the dorsal margin and curving slightly upwards terminates at vein 3. Antennae dark brown; head, thorax and abdomen rusty brown; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen narrowly whitish.

Female upperside: white. Forewing: apical, terminal and tornal areas black, the inner margin of the black commences just before the middle of the costa, and runs obliquely outward in a sinuous curve to base of the apical fourth of vein 2, thence it is produced for a short distance inwardly along that vein and terminates at the middle of the dorsal margin. Hindwing: a broad black stripe along the costal margin; the termen somewhat narrowly pale yellowish-brown. Underside white, the markings somewhat variable. Forewing: costa, apex and termen with minute earthy-brown speckles, sparse along the costa, more dense on the termen; on the latter they coalesce and form a brown smudgy border that is bounded on the inner side by a curved, postdiscal, more or less clearly defined, narrow, yellowish-brown band; cell crossed transversely by a basal, a medial and an apical short similar band; the medial band darkened in colour and continued almost to the dorsum, the apical band along the discocellulars. Hindwing: with minute brown speckles, more or less lightly and irregularly stained with rusty brown; basal half with obscure, transverse, narrow, macular, earthy-brown bauds that are well-defined only anteriorly, the basal one produced up to the dorsum; a short dark-edged transverse band from the tornus to vein 4 running parallel to the costal margin, the lower edge of the band acutely and irregularly dentate; the terminal and tornal areas below this band washed with earthy brown. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male but very much paler.[2]

Taxonomy

This species is also considered as belonging to genus Allotinus. The same ref considers taxon (Allotinus) multistrigatus as conspecific to this species.[3]

See also

Cited references

  1. ↑ Card for species drumila in LepIndex. Accessed 23 March 2007.
  2. ↑ Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.
  3. ↑ Page on Markku Savela's site for genus Allotinus (Lycaenidae).

References

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