Lampides lacteata
Encyclopedia
The Milky Cerulean is a small butterfly
found in India
that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues
family.
Female. Still more closely resembles the same sex of elpis, but the ground-colour on the upper side is nearly white suffused with purplish blue towards the base of the wings and the black area on the apex and terminal margin is very broad. On the underside the markings are as in its own male.
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
found in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues
Lycaenidae
The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...
family.
Description
Male Upperside: a uniform pale purplish blue slightly paler than in L. elpis. Fore and hind wings: very slender black anticiliary lines. Fore wing: narrowly fuscous at apex; hind wing: a very slender terminal white thread before the anticiliary black line and a small black subterrainal spot in interspace 1 edged inwardly with white, above which is a very obscure, short, transverse fuscous line. Cilia of both wings brown, with on the hind wing a white line at the base; tail black tipped with white. Underside: pale uniform greyish brown; discal and inner markings on both fore and hind wings almost identical with those of true elpis, and precisely similar to those in many varieties from Sikhim and Assam, of that form. Terminal markings on both wings differ only in the two transverse subterminal white lines which are lunular and not straight. On the hind wing these lines are not however, nearly so prominently made up of lunules as in L. subdita. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in L. elpis.Female. Still more closely resembles the same sex of elpis, but the ground-colour on the upper side is nearly white suffused with purplish blue towards the base of the wings and the black area on the apex and terminal margin is very broad. On the underside the markings are as in its own male.
See also
- LycaenidaeLycaenidaeThe Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...
- List of butterflies of India
- List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)