Virachola isocrates

Virachola isocrates is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Asia.[1][2] Its common names include common guava blue,[1][2] pomegranate butterfly, and anar butterfly. It is a pest of pomegranates in India.[3][4]

Virachola isocrates
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Lycaenidae
Genus:
Virachola
Species:
V. isocrates
Binomial name
Virachola isocrates
(Fabricius, 1793)

Description
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

Male. Upperside violet-brown. Forewing with the colour darkening on the margins in certain lights showing a bright violet gloss on the inner area; an indistinct orange-ochreous patch, varying in size in different examples, beyond the cell, only visible in certain lights. Hlndwing with the costal area and abdominal fold blackish-brown, anal lobe whitish with a black spot in it, varying in size in different examples, with some pale bluish-white scaling on its upper side, in some examples the black spot nearly fills the whole of the anal lobe; tail black, tipped with white. Cilia of both wings with the basal part black, the outer half white, becoming bluish grey below the tail and round the anal lobe. Underside vinous-grey, or slaty-grey, markings darker than the ground colour, edged on both sides with white. Forewing with a bar at the end of the cell, a discal band of conjoined spots, decreasing in size hindwards, nearly straight down, from near the costa to below vein 2, where the spot is very small. Hlndwing with similar discoidal bar and discal band, the latter somewhat irregular, the third, fourth and sixth spots a little outside the others, then the band with a sudden curve reaches the abdominal margin a little below its middle; anal lobe black with a white spot on its upper inner side, a smaller black spot ringed with orange in the first interspace, with some blue, grey and white scaling between them; both wings with indications of a narrow sub-marginal band and very fine marginal grey line. Antennse black, ringed with white, club with an orange tip, with a white streak below at its base; frons greyish-white; eyes ringed with white; head and body above and below concolorous with the wings, abdomen below white. Female. Upperside brown. Forewing with the colour darkening towards the margins, the orange-ochreous patch larger and more distinct and varying much in extent, in some examples extending broadly to the base below the median vein. Underside as in the male, but the bands are broader and more outwardly curved, the black anal spots larger.

— Charles Swinhoe, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IX[4]
  • Life cycle
  • Infected guava
  • Larva
  • Pupa
  • Pupa

References
  1. Varshney, R.K.; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing. p. 120. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. Savela, Markku. "Deudorix isocrates (Fabricius, 1793)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  3. Kumawat K. C., S. S. Jheeba and A. K. Soni. (2001). Ecofriendly management of anar butterfly, Virachola isocrates (Fabricius). Advances in Horticulture and Forestry 8:1
  4. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1911–1912). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IX. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 64–69.


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