Logania distanti

{{Short description|Species of butterfly}}

{{Speciesbox

| name = Dark mottle

| image = Messalia.jpg

| image_caption = Specimen from Malaya

| genus = Logania (butterfly)

| species = distanti

| authority = Semper, 1889

| synonyms = * Logania massalia Doherty, 1891

}}

Logania distanti, the dark mottle,{{cite web |last=Savela |first=Markku |url=http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/lycaenidae/miletinae/logania/#distanti |title=Logania distanti Semper, 1889 |website=Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms |accessdate=May 16, 2018}} is a small but striking butterfly found in India that belongs to the lycaenids or blues (family Lycaenidae). It was first described by Georg Semper in 1889.

Description

=Male=

Upperside dark brown. Forewing: a medial dull whitish spot at base of interspace 3 extended upwards on to vein 4 and below into interspace 2. Hindwing; uniform, immaculate. Underside: very pale dull brown, with darker brown mottlings and striae, that on the forewing are absent on a broad streak from base outwards along the basal half of the dorsum, this area pale brown without markings; a dark obscure spot at apex of cell and an incomplete similarly obscure dark transverse discal band. On the hindwing the mottlings coalesce and form three or four very ill-defined, obscure, transverse, somewhat broad bands. Head, thorax and abdomen dark brown. Sex-mark: the base of vein 4 swollen and bare of scales.

=Female=

"Above black, a round dull white discal area on the forewing from just above the upper median (vein 4) almost to the submedian vein (vein 1). Below irregularly speckled and variegated; forewing with the costal and apical parts ochreous brown, the rest blackish. Hindwing also tinged with ochreous, a submarginal dark area, and obscure dark transverse bands. Hindwing not angled, the margin entire." (Doherty quoted in Bingham){{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=C. T. |authorlink=Charles Thomas Bingham |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Butterflies Volume II |url=https://archive.org/details/butterflies02bingiala |publisher= Taylor and Francis, Ltd. |location=London |year=1907}}

Range

Assam - Myanmar, Malaya, Borneo?, Thailand, Laos, Sumatra.

Taxonomy

The butterfly is also referred to as Logania massalia Doherty, 1891.{{LepIndex |id=194442 |name=Logania massalia |accessdate=May 16, 2018}}

See also

References