Azanus uranus, the dull babul blue[1] or Indian babul blue, is a small butterfly found in India[1] that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. It was first described by Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1886.[2]

Dull babul blue
In Charles Swinhoe's Lepidoptera Indica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Azanus
Species:
A. uranus
Binomial name
Azanus uranus
Butler 1886

Description edit

The species closely resembles A. ubaldus, Cramer. The male on the upperside has the ground colour much paler and the terminal edging on both forewings and hindwings much narrower, reduced, in fact, to a conspicuous dark brown anteciliary line, while the two dark spots at the tornal area of the hindwing are more or less obsolescent. In the female on the upperside the ground colour is also much paler than in the female of A. ubaldus, but the suffusion of purplish blue at the base of the wings in a solitary female specimen is spread slightly further outwards than it is in the female of A. ubaldus.[3]

Underside: ground colour greyish white; character and disposition of the markings much as in A. ubaldus, but faint and not clearly defined, often many of them scarcely traceable; the transverse subbasal row of black spots on the hindwing either completely absent or barely visible. The black subcostal spot in interspace 7, though smaller than in A. ubaldus, seems to be always present, while the tornal black spots seem to be particularly large and prominent in both sexes.[3][4]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b R.K., Varshney; Smetacek, Peter (2015). A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India. New Delhi: Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. p. 138. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164. ISBN 978-81-929826-4-9.
  2. ^ Savela, Markku. "Azanus uranus Butler, 1886". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  3. ^ a b   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Vol. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd. p. 363.
  4. ^   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Swinhoe, Charles (1910–1911). Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. VIII. London: Lovell Reeve and Co. p. 34.