Euploea klugii

Taxobox
name = Blue King Crow


image_caption = Female at Narenderpur near Kolkata, India.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
superfamilia = Papilionoidea
familia = Nymphalidae
subfamilia = Danainae
genus = "Euploea"
species = "E. klugii"
binomial = "Euploea klugii"
binomial_authority = Moore, 1858

The Blue King Crow ("Euploea klugii") is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Crows and Tigers, that is, the Danaid group of the Brush-footed butterflies family.

Description

Male: Fore wing very variable in shape, especially in the outline of the termen and dorsum. In the type it is comparatively long in proportion to width owing to the less convexity of the dorsal margin, and has the termen oblique, slightly convex ; in var. "novarae" it is remarkably broad, the great convexity of the dorsal margin making it almost subquadrate, while the termen is more convex than in the typical form. In the female the difference is less marked.

Typical form. Upperside: fore wing dark brown suffused up to the terinen with a brilliant blue gloss; a spot iu apex of cell, a small costal spot, two short streaks beyond apex of cell, and in the female two discal spots: in the 6 subterminal and terminal series of spots; in the female the latter series wanting: in both sexes the subterminal spots produced inwards. All the spots bluish white in colour. Hind wing umber-brown, the centre glossed with blue ; subterminal rows of spots incomplete or obsolescent, the former reduced to two or three spots below the apex, the latter in the male mere dots; in the female absent, only seen by transparency from the underside.Underside similar, paler brown, not glossed with blue; centre of fore wing dark, spots more clearly defined, subterminal and terminal series more or less complete- Antennae black; head, thorax and abdomen velvety brown, head and thorax speckled with bluish white.

Race "kollari" Upperside, very dark olive-brown, paling to lighter brown towards the termen ; both wings with complete or nearly complete series of subterrninal and terminal white spots, the former larger than the latter, in the tore wing decreasing in size towards, and curving inwards opposite, the apex ; in the hind wing elongate-oval, much larger than the terminal spots, these latter very regular, two in each interspace in the fore wing, obsolete towards the apex. Underside of a paler olive-brown, the spots as on upperside, with the addition m the fore wing of two to four discal spots, that in interspace 2 the largest, and a small costal spot; in the hind wing of one or two discal specks. Antennae very dark brown; head, thorax and abdomen dark brown, the former two speckled sparsely with white.Bingham, C. T. (1905) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 1]

Distribution

Peninsular India, Ceylon and the Malay region. Many geographic races.

References

ee also

*Danainae
*Nymphalidae
*List of butterflies of India
*List of butterflies of India (Nymphalidae)