The Banded Lineblue
is a species of blue butterfly

Lycaenidae

The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...

 found in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

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.

Range

The butterfly occurs in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 from Kumaon

Kumaon Division

For Kumaoni/Kumauni People see Kumauni PeopleKumaon or Kumaun is one of the two regions and administrative divisions of Uttarakhand, a mountainous state of northern India, the other being Garhwal. It includes the districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, and Udham Singh Nagar...

 to Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

 and onto Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

. It is also found in the Andamans.
In South East Asia the butterfly ranges from Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

 to Southern Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

  and southwards to Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

, Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, Nias

Nias

Nīas is an island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago, containing the Hinako archipelago....

, northern Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

 and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. ?Ceylon. ?SouthernThailand.

External links

• Asahi Correctly determined photos of P. aluta from the Philippines
  Philippines
  The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...