The Lesser Grass Blue, Zizina otis, is a species of blue

Lycaenidae

The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...

 butterfly found in south Asia. The Lesser Grass Blue is often misidentified as the Common Grass Blue, Zizina labradus

Zizina labradus

Zizina labradus, commonly known as the Common Grass Blue, Grass Blue, or Clover Blue, is a small Australian butterfly of the Lycaenidae family.-Description:...

.

Male upperside

Pale violet-blue, with a silvery sheen in certain lights, fore wing: a broad brown edging along the termen, which covers in some specimens quite the outer fourth of the wing, while in others is much narrower. It is always broadest at the apex and is bounded by an anticiliary darker line, beyond which the cilia are brownish at base and white outwardly.

Hind wing: anterior or costal third to half and apex brown; a slender black anticiliary line, beyond which the cilia are as in the fore wing.

Male underside

Brownish grey. Fore wing: a short, transverse, dusky lunule on the discocellulars and a transverse, anteriorly curved, discal series of seven minute black spots, all the spots more or less rounded, the posterior two geminate, the disco-cellular lunule and each discal spot conspicuously encircled with white; the terminal markings beyond the above consist of an inner and an outer transverse subterminal series of dusky spots, each spot edged on the inner side very obscurely with dusky white, the inner line of spots lunular, the outer with the spots more or less rounded. Cilia dusky.

Hind wing : a transverse, curved, sub-basal series of four spots and an irregular transverse discal series of nine small spots black, each spot encircled narrowly with white. Of the discal spots the posterior four are placed in an outwardly oblique, slightly curved line, the middle two spots geminate; the three spots above these are placed in an oblique transverse line further outwards ; lastly, the anterior two spots are posited one over the other and shifted well inwards, just above the apex of the cell; disco-cellular lunule and terminal markings as on the fore wing, but the inner subterminal lunular line in the latter broader and more prominent. Cilia dusky. Antenna black, shafts ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen brown, with a little blue scaling; beneath: white.

Female upperside

Brown, with a more or less distinct suffusion of violet-blue at the bases of the wings, on the hind wing continued obscurely along the dorsum; both fore and hind wings with slender anticiliary lines, darker than the ground-colour.

Female underside

Ground-colour slightly darker than in the male, markings precisely similar. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but the thorax and abdomen above without any blue scaling.

Distribution

Zizina otis occurs in south Asia. It was reported from Oahu (Hawaii, USA) in 2008.
Zizina otis labradus is found in the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

, and the northern part of the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. While the Zizina otis oxleyi is found in the southern part of the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 only.

Larval host plants

The species breeds on many plants of the family Leguminosae including Alysicarpus vaginalis,Desmodium spp., Glycine max, Indigofera spp., Mimosa spp..

General reading

• Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
• Gaonkar, Harish (1996) Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
• Gay,Thomas; Kehimkar,Isaac & Punetha,J.C.(1992) Common Butterflies of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
• Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
• Kunte,Krushnamegh (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
• Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

External links

• Asahi Correctly determined photos of Zizina otis specimens from the Philippines
  Philippines
  The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
  
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• NHM Lepidopteran hosts database