''Jamides lacteata'', the milky cerulean, is a small
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
found in
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
that belongs to the
lycaenids or blues family.
Description
Male upperside: a uniform pale purplish blue slightly paler than in ''
L. elpis''. Forewings and hindwings: very slender black anteciliary lines. Forewing: narrowly fuscous at apex; hindwing: a very slender terminal white thread before the anteciliary black line and a small black subterminal 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 hindwing a white line at the base; tail black tipped with white. Underside: pale uniform greyish brown; discal and inner markings on both forewings and hindwings almost identical with those of true ''L. elpis'', and precisely similar to those in many varieties from
Sikkim
Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligu ...
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 hindwing 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 ''L. elpis'', but the ground colour on the upperside 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
*
List of butterflies of India
The following is a list of the butterflies of India.
India has extremely diverse terrain, climate and vegetation, which comprises extremes of heat cold, desert and jungle, of low-lying plains and the highest mountains, of dryness and dampness, is ...
*
List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)
This is a list of the butterflies of India belonging to the family Lycaenidae and an index to the species articles. This forms part of the full List of butterflies of India.
This list is based on Evans (1932) and includes 318 species bel ...
References
Jamides
Butterflies of Asia
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