''Jamides bochus'', the dark cerulean, is a small

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

found in

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 ...

that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. The species was first described by

Caspar Stoll Caspar Stoll (Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Kassel, probably between 1725 and 1730 – Amsterdam, December 1791) was a naturalist and Entomology, entomologist, best known for the completion of ''De Uitlandsche Kapellen'', a work on butterfl ...

in 1782.

Description

Male upperside, forewing: velvety jet black; base deep blue, beautifully metallic and shining, measured on the dorsum this colour occupies three-fourths of its length from base, its outer margin then curves upwards just past the apex of the cell, enters into the bases of interspaces 10, 11 and 12 and fills the whole of the cell. Hindwing: costal margin above subcostal vein and vein 7, and dorsal margin narrowly fuscous black, a medial longitudinal pale streak on the former; terminal margin narrowly edged with velvety black, inside which in interspaces 1 and 2 is a slender transverse whitish line, with an elongate irregular transverse black spot above it in interspace 1 and a more obscure similar spot in interspace 2; traces of such spots also are present in some specimens in the anterior interspaces. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings black; filamentous tail at apex of vein 2 black tipped with white. Underside: dark chocolate brown. Forewings and hindwings; transversely crossed by the following very slender white hues all more or less broken into short pieces: Forewing: a short pair one on each side of and parallel to the discocellulars, a pale streak along the discocellulars themselves; a single line in continuation of the outer of the discocellular lines, extends down to vein 1; an upper discal pair of lines that form a more or less catenulated (chain-like) short band extend from the costa to vein 3, the inner line of the two continued to vein 1; two more obscure subterminal and a single terminal line, the area enclosed between the subterminal lines and between them and the terminal line darker in the interspaces, giving the appearance of two obscure subterminal lines of spots edged inwardly and outwardly by white lines. Hindwing: crossed by nine very broken and irregular lines; tracing them from the costa downwards their middle short pieces are found to be shifted outwards and a few are short and not complete, the inner two are posteriorly bent abruptly upwards, the subterminal two are lunular and the terminal line nearly continuous; posteriorly between the subterminal pair of lines in interspace 1 there is a small black spot inwardly edged with dark ochraceous, and in interspace 2a much larger round black spot, both black spots are touched with metallic blue scales. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black, the shafts of the antennae speckled with white; beneath: palpi, thorax and abdomen narrowly white down the middle. Female. Similar to the male generally but with the following differences: upperside, forewing: ground colour fuscous opaque black, not velvety black, blue basal area more restricted and not so deep a blue nor at all metallic. Hindwing: the black costal and terminal margins very much broader, the blue on the basal area consequently much restricted and of the same shade as the blue on the forewing; terminal margin with a subterminal anteriorly obsolescent series of spots of a shade darker than that of the terminal black area on which they are superposed; these spots posteriorly more or less distinctly encircled with slender lines of bluish white, anteriorly these lines are almost obsolete. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings and the filamentous short tail as in the male. Underside: similar to that of the cf but the ground colour generally paler and duller; the transverse white lines broader and more dearly defined. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.

Distribution

Peninsular

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, but not in the very dry or desert tracts,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, Assam,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

, Tenasserim, the

Andamans The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

; extending in the Malayan subregion to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Life cycle

"The larva which we have taken at Karwar in June is hardly distinguishable from that of ''Catochrysops pandava'', Horsfield; it is, however, covered with minute hairs and is generally of an olive-green colour and without the reddish suffusion so generally noticed in ''C. pandava''. The pupa is indistinguishable from that of ''C. pandava''. The larva feeds on '' Xylia dolabrifornis'', and also on the flowers of '' Butea frondosa''." Other food plants noted include ''

Millettia peguensis ''Millettia peguensis'', the Moulmein rosewood (Bengali: তূমা Tuma), is a legume tree species in the genus ''Millettia''. It is native to Lower Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred t ...

''.Kunte, K. (2006). "Additions to the known larval host plants of Indian butterflies". ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society''. 103 (1): 119–121.

Gallery

File:Dark Cerulean DC.jpg, At

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India File:DarkCerulean.jpg, At Kozhikode, Kerala File:Dark Cerulean UN.jpg, At Kozhikode, Kerala

References

External links