Prosotas aluta

Banded Lineblue
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Prosotas
Species:	P. aluta
Binomial name
Prosotas aluta (H. Druce, 1873)

The Banded Lineblue (Prosotas aluta) ^{[1] [2]} is a species of blue butterfly found in Asia.

Description

Race coelestis: Male upperside: shining bluish with a purple flush in certain lights. Fore and hind wings: termen narrowly edged with fuscous black on which the jet-black anticiliary line on each wing is obscurely visible, the edging of fuscous black slightly widened anteriorly. Underside: dusky brown. Fore wing: a transverse, subbasal, broad, dark, brownish-black, white-margined band from the subcostal to vein 1, a similar band along the discoocellulars also extended to vein 1, an upper discal similar band from costa, curved a little outwards and stopping short at vein 3, followed by a postdiscal transverse series of dark spots which on the inner side are comparatively broadly, on the outer side very slenderly edged with white; succeeding which is a subterminal extremely slender series of transversely linear spots, a white line and a jet-black anticiliary line; cilia brown. Hind wing: three transversely arranged dark brownish-black spots; transverse similarly coloured subbasal and discal bands, both bands inwardly and outwardly edged with slender white lines and the discal band greatly and irregularly widened in the middle, where superposed on the dark background is a snow-white transverse spot; beyond these are a postdiscal series of comparatively broad white lunules, a subterminal very slender white lunular line, a terminal white thread and a jet-black slender anticiliary line; cilia shining silky brown; tail brown tipped with white. Antennae black, the shafts obscurely speckled with white; head black; thorax and abdomen bluish; beneath : palpi with blackish fringe, thorax and abdomen whitish.^[3]

Range

The butterfly occurs in India from Kumaon to Assam and onto Myanmar. It is also found in the Andamans. In South East Asia the butterfly ranges from Myanmar to Southern Yunnan and southwards to Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra, Nias, northern Sulawesi and the Philippines. ?Ceylon. ?SouthernThailand.^[2]

Cited references

1. ^ Card for Prosotas aluta in LepIndex. Accessed 09 June 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b} Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera Page on Prosotas genus.
3. ^ Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2

See also

• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

References

• Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors). 2003. The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex [accessed 14 October 2006].
• 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.
• Haribal, Meena (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
• Kunte,Krushnamegh (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
• Marrku Savela's Website on Lepidoptera [1].
• Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

External links

• Asahi Correctly determined photos of P. aluta from the Philippines