Cigaritis schistacea, the plumbeous silverline,[1][2] is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Sri Lanka, south India and Myanmar.[1][2][3][4]

Plumbeous silverline
In Hyderabad, India
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Cigaritis
Species:
C. schistacea
Binomial name
Cigaritis schistacea
(Moore, [1881])
Synonyms
  • Aphnaeus schistacea Moore, [1881]
  • Spindasis schistacea (Moore, [1881])

Description

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Male. Upperside brown, paler in colour than Cigaritis vulcanus fusca. Forewlng very variable in markings, sometimes the orange-red transverse streaks are very few and ill defined, sometimes towards the upper outer part of the wing they are so broad as to form an orange-red ground colour traversed by brown bands. Hindwing highly tinted with blue (not lilac as in fusca), the disc in certain lights being bright blue in fresh specimens, anal orange-red patch and tails as in fusca. Underside with the ground colour and bands as in fusca, but all the bands are at more even distances apart from each other and are consequently closer together. Female. Upperside brown like the male, but with no blue tint or gloss; markings above and below similar, but the bands on the underside a good deal broader than they are in the male.

Notes and references

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  1. ^ a b R.K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. pp. 94–95. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. ^ a b Savela, Markku. "Cigaritis schistacea (Moore, [1881])". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  3. ^ "Checklist of Butterflies of Western Ghats". indiabiodiversity.org/. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1911–1912). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IX. Vol. 9. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. p. 162.