''Ancema blanka'', the silver royal, is a species of

lycaenid Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

or blue butterfly found in the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

. The species was first described by

Lionel de Nicéville Charles Lionel Augustus de Nicéville (1852 in Bristol – 3 December 1901 in Calcutta from malaria) was a curator at the Indian Museum in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He studied the butterflies of the Indian Subcontinent and wrote a three volume mono ...

in 1894.

Description

described this species in 1894 as:

Subspecies

*''A. b. blanka'' North India, Sikkim - Assam, Myanmar, Sumatra *''A. b. minturna'' (Fruhstorfer, 1912) Thailand, Laos, Sikkim, Assam, Bhutan *''A. b. nacandra'' (Fruhstorfer, 1912) Java *''A. b. sudica'' (Evans, 1926) South India *''A. b. reina'' Schröder & Treadaway, 1998

Habits

They fly very fast. During summers, the male occasionally comes to water but usually keeps to the treetops and rocks, especially on the summit of hills, where they basks in the sun with the wings half open. Silver royals can sometimes be seen sitting on the dung of animals and by the sides of small streams and waterfalls. Females are rarely seen.

References

External links

* With images. Remelanini Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Singapore Butterflies described in 1894 {{Theclinae-stub