Euchrysops cnejus

Euchrysops cnejus, the gram blue, is a small butterfly that belongs

to the lycaenids or blues family. It is found from India[2] to Gram blue
Australia. The species was first described by Johan Christian
Fabricius in 1798.[1]

Contents
Description
Distribution
Larva Male
Pupa
Subspecies
See also
References
External links

Description Female

Scientific classification
Male upperside: pale
purplish suffused with a Kingdom: Animalia
bluish shade, apparent only Phylum: Arthropoda
in certain lights. Forewing:
a slender black anteciliary Class: Insecta
line edged on the inner side Order: Lepidoptera
narrowly with fuscous dark
brown, broader at apex Family: Lycaenidae
Upperside (male)
than at the tornal angle. Tribe: Polyommatini
Hindwing: a subterminal
black spot in interspace 1 Genus: Euchrysops
and another similar spot in interspace 2, the two spots subequal in
Species: E. cnejus
size, edged on the outer side by a white thread and on the inner side
with ochraceous, more prominent in the spot in interspace 2; a Binomial name
slender anteciliary black line with an inner narrow margin of diffuse
Euchrysops cnejus
fuscous brown. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings pale; tail at
(Fabricius 1798) [1]
apex of vein 2 of the hindwing black tipped with white.[3]
Synonyms
Underside: silver grey, in some with a pale yellowish, in others with
a faint brown tint. Forewings and hindwings: each with the
Hesperia cnejus Fabricius,
following brown spots edged slenderly on either side with white: a
transverse elongate spot on the discocellulars; a transverse discal 1798
series of spots straight on the fore, bisinuate on the hindwing, on the
 latter wing capped near the
costa by a prominent
while-encircled round
black spot; an inner and an
outer subterminal
transverse series of spots,
of which the inner
subterminal series on the
hindwing is lunular, the
outer rounded, the white
Upperside (female) edging to both series being
also lunular; both wings
have very slender
anteciliary black lines, and the hindwing in addition a transverse
curved subbasal series of generally three often four white-encircled
spots of which the spot nearest the costa is prominent and block, the
others brown. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen dark brown,
paler on the last, the shafts of the antennae speckled with white, the
thorax with a little purplish pubescence; beneath: the palpi, thorax
and abdomen white.[3]
Lycaena pandia Kollar, [1844]
Lycaena patala Kollar, [1844]
Lycaena monica Reakirt, 1866
Lycaena samoa Herrich-
Schäffer, 1869
Cupido amazara Kirby, 1871
Catochrysops hapalina Butler,
1883
Catochrysops trifracta Butler,
1884
Catochrysops theseus
Swinhoe, 1885
Euchrysops suffusus
Rothschild, 1915

Euchrysops cnidus
Female upperside: dark brown. Forewing: a posteromedial
somewhat triangular area from the base outwards for about two- Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914
thirds the length of the wing blue and a slender jet-black anteciliary Catochrysops vitiensis Butler,
line. Hindwing: posteriorly from about the level of the middle of the
1883
cell slightly suffused with blue from base outwards for about two-
thirds the length of the wing; a transverse, postdiscal, incomplete Plebejus luzonicus Röber,
series of sagittate (arrowhead-shaped) white spots pointing inwards,
1886
followed by a subterminal transverse series of round spots, the
anterior three dark brown encircled with bluish white, the tornal two
jet-black, subequal, larger than the others, edged inwardly with bright ochraceous, outwardly by very slender
white lines; finally, a jet-black slender anteciliary line. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings conspicuously
white. Underside: ground colour and markings as in the male, the tornal two black spots touched outwardly
with metallic bluish-green scaling. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male, the shafts
of the antennae conspicuously ringed with white.[3][4]

Distribution
The species is spread throughout India[2] except at very high elevations and is widely distributed in the
Malayan subregion; extending to Australia and the South Sea Islands.[3][1]

Larva
"Of the usual Lycaenid shape .... the head small, black, shining, retractile. Colour of body pale green with
darker green or reddish dorsal and subdorsal lines, the latter coalesced into a broad band between the eleventh
and last segments. The entire surface of the body covered with minute white tubercles, there are also a few
scattered white hairs. The segmental constrictions shallow. Spiracles black. Extensile organs on the twelfth
segment small. The larva is broader than high in its higher part, increasing in width to fourth segment, from
thence to the flattened anal segment of about uniform width. Bred by me in Calcutta on Phaseolus trilobus.
Mr. W. O. Taylor reports that the larva feeds in Orissa on Dolichos catjang, Roxb. Dr. A. Forel identifies the
ant in Calcutta as Camponotus rubripes subspecies compressus" (de Niceville.)[3]
Pupa
"Very pale green, the abdominal segments somewhat opaque; of the
usual Lycaenid shape, no distinctive structure or markings. Head-case
square, thorax slightly humped, slightly constricted before the first
abdominal segment, a dark dorsal line extending the whole length;
spiracles black; entire surface smooth not hairy." (de Niceville.)[3]

Subspecies Larva

E. c. cnejus
E. c. cnidus Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 (Torres Strait Islands, northern Australia to Southport, New
Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons)
E. c. vitiensis (Butler, 1883) (Fiji)
E. c. luzonicus (Röber, 1886) (Sangihe, Talaud, Philippines: Palawan, Cebu, Leyte, Luzon,
Tawitawi)

See also
List of butterflies of India
List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

References
1. Savela, Markku (December 25, 2018). "Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius, 1798)" (https://www.nic.f
unet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/lycaenidae/polyommatinae/euc
hrysops/#cnejus). Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
2. R. K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India (http
s://www.researchgate.net/publication/287980260). New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre,
Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. p. 143. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164 (https://doi.or
g/10.13140%2FRG.2.1.3966.2164). ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
3. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public
domain: Bingham, Charles Thomas (1907). Fauna of British India. Butterflies Vol. 2 (https://arch
ive.org/stream/butterflies02bingiala#page/414/mode/2up/). pp. 415–416.
4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public
domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1910–1911). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VIII (https://www.biodiversityli
brary.org/item/104151#page/54/mode/1up). London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 40–42.

External links
Takanami, Yusuke & Seki, Yasuo (2001). "Genus Euchrysops" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
010908172254/http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~Ey4y-TKNM/Polyomatinae-Phil/Euchrysops.html). A
Synonymic List of Lycaenidae from the Philippines. Archived from the original (http://www.asahi
-net.or.jp/~Ey4y-TKNM/Polyomatinae-Phil/Euchrysops.html) on September 8, 2001 – via
Internet Archive. Images.

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