Zizina otis

Zizina otis, the lesser grass blue,[2][3] is a species of blue (Lycaenidae) butterfly found in south[2] and southeast Asia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1787.[3] The lesser grass blue is often misidentified as Zizina labradus, the common grass blue.[4]

Lesser grass blue
Z. o. lampa, upperside
Z. o. indica, underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Zizina
Species:
Z. otis
Binomial name
Zizina otis
(Fabricius, 1787)
Subspecies
  • Z. o. annetta Toxopeus, 1929
  • Z. o. aruensis (Swinhoe, 1916)
  • Z. o. caduca (Butler, [1876])
  • Z. o. indica (Murray, 1874)
  • Z. o. kuli Toxopeus, 1929
  • Z. o. lampa (Corbet, 1940)
  • Z. o. lampra Tite, 1969
  • Z. o. luculenta (Kurihara, 1948)
  • Z. o. mangoensis (Butler, 1884)
  • Z. o. oblongata (Kurihara, 1948)
  • Z. o. oriens (Butler, 1883)
  • Z. o. otis (Fabricius, 1787)
  • Z. o. oxleyi (C. & R. Felder, [1865])[1]
  • Z. o. parasangra Toxopeus, 1929
  • Z. o. riukuensis (Matsumura, 1929)
  • Z. o. sangra (Moore, [1866])
  • Z. o. soeriomataram Kalis, 1938
  • Z. o. tanagra (Felder, 1860)

and possibly two undescribed subspecies from Sulawesi/Selayar & Banggai.

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

Male upperside

Pale violet blue, with a silvery sheen in certain lights, forewing: a broad brown edging along the termen, which covers in some specimens quite the outer fourth of the wing, while in others is much narrower. It is always broadest at the apex and is bounded by an anteciliary darker line, beyond which the cilia are brownish at base and white outwardly.[5]

Hindwing: anterior or costal third to half and apex brown; a slender black anteciliary line, beyond which the cilia are as in the forewing.[5]

Male underside

Brownish grey. Forewing: a short, transverse, dusky lunule on the discocellulars and a transverse, anteriorly curved, discal series of seven minute black spots, all the spots more or less rounded, the posterior two geminate (paired), the discocellular lunule and each discal spot conspicuously encircled with white; the terminal markings beyond the above consist of an inner and an outer transverse subterminal series of dusky spots, each spot edged on the inner side very obscurely with dusky white, the inner line of spots lunular, the outer with the spots more or less rounded. Cilia dusky.[5]

Hindwing: a transverse, curved, sub-basal series of four spots and an irregular transverse discal series of nine small spots black, each spot encircled narrowly with white. Of the discal spots the posterior four are placed in an outwardly oblique, slightly curved line, the middle two spots geminate; the three spots above these are placed in an oblique transverse line further outwards; lastly, the anterior two spots are posited one over the other and shifted well inwards, just above the apex of the cell; discocellular lunule and terminal markings as on the forewing, but the inner subterminal lunular line in the latter broader and more prominent. Cilia dusky. Antenna black, shafts ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen brown, with a little blue scaling; beneath: white.[5]

Female upperside

Brown, with a more or less distinct suffusion of violet blue at the bases of the wings, on the hindwing continued obscurely along the dorsum; both forewings and hindwings with slender anteciliary lines, darker than the ground colour.[5]

Female underside

Ground colour slightly darker than in the male, markings precisely similar. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male, but the thorax and abdomen above without any blue scaling.[5][6]

Distribution

Zizina otis occurs in south Asia. It was reported from the Hawaiian island of Oahu in 2008.[7] Zizina otis labradus is found in the North Island, and the northern part of the South Island of New Zealand. While the Zizina otis oxleyi is found in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand only.

Larval host plants

The species breeds on many plants of the family Leguminosae including Alysicarpus vaginalis, Desmodium species, Glycine max, Indigofera species, and Mimosa species.

Conservation status

This species has been classified as "not threatened" under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.[8]

See also

References
  1. Sometimes treated as distinct species
  2. Varshney, R. K.; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing. p. 135. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  3. Savela, Markku. "Zizina otis (Fabricius, 1787)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  4. "Zizina labradus". UTS Official Website. University of Technology, Sydney. 2008-06-18. Archived from the original on 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  5. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Bingham, C. T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Butterflies Volume II. London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd. pp. 360–361.
  6. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work now in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1905–1910). Lepidoptera Indica: Volume VII. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. pp. 260–262.
  7. Gee, Pat (2008). "New butterfly is discovered in Waikiki lot". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Posted October 14, 2008; accessed October 14, 2008.
  8. Hoare, R. J. B.; Dugdale, J. S.; Edwards, E. D.; Gibbs, G. W.; Patrick, B. H.; Hitchmough, R. A.; Rolfe, J. R. (2017). "Conservation status of New Zealand butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), 2015" (PDF). New Zealand Threat Classification Series. 20: 9.

General reading
  • Evans, W. H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
  • Gaonkar, Harish (1996). Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a Threatened Mountain System. Bangalore, India: Centre for Ecological Sciences.
  • Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac David; Punetha, Jagdish Chandra (1992). Common Butterflies of India. Nature Guides. Bombay, India: World Wide Fund for Nature-India by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195631647.
  • Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation.
  • Kunte, Krushnamegh (2000). Butterflies of Peninsular India. India, A Lifescape. Hyderabad, India: Universities Press. ISBN 978-8173713545.
  • Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.
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