Subspecies in India
(1) Cigaritis zhengweilie chayuensis Huang, 2001 – Chayu Contiguous Silverline
Taxonomic Information
This species is sometimes listed under the genus Spindasis. Recent phylogenetic work shows Spindasis to be embedded within Cigaritis, so this species is now listed under Cigaritis.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
This species was earlier known only from SE Tibet (Mêdog County and Chayu County). The Indian distribution is based on Purnendu Roy's record from Anini, Upper Dibang Valley District, eastern Arunachal Pradesh, on 1987/07/28, and Krushnamegh Kunte's record from the Eaglenest WLS, West Kameng District, western Arunachal Pradesh, on 2015/06/25 (BOI-bu684 and BOI-bu685), reported here on 2015/08/15. The species has subsequently been recorded in Bhutan, and in Arunachal Pradesh from West Kameng to Siang Districts.
The pale yellow ground colour, thick black-edged silver bands makes this species superficially similar to S. syama and S. elwesi, however the lowest post-basal spot on the hindwing is connected by a black streak that is continuous to the wing base. The club shaped mark at the base of the forewing in S. syama consists of a single streak and not a spot and streak as in S. zhengweilie and S. elwesi.
This species is probably more closely allied to S. rukma, S. nipalicus, S. rukmini and S. evansii, however the underside ground colour, thick black-edged bands with little or no colour between the silver and black edges separates this species from those species.
Both the male and female of S. zhengweilie lack any sign of a red patch on the upper forewing and this also distinguishes this species from S. elwesi, S. nipalicus (males may lack red markings occasionally) and S. rukma.
State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
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Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | |||||||||||||
Andhra Pradesh | |||||||||||||
Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
Assam | |||||||||||||
Bihar | |||||||||||||
Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
Chhattisgarh | |||||||||||||
Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
Delhi | |||||||||||||
Goa | |||||||||||||
Gujarat | |||||||||||||
Haryana | |||||||||||||
Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
Karnataka | |||||||||||||
Kerala | |||||||||||||
Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
Maharashtra | |||||||||||||
Manipur | |||||||||||||
Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
Mizoram | |||||||||||||
Nagaland | |||||||||||||
Odisha | |||||||||||||
Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
Punjab | |||||||||||||
Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
Sikkim | |||||||||||||
Tamil Nadu | |||||||||||||
Tripura | |||||||||||||
Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
Uttarakhand | |||||||||||||
West Bengal | |||||||||||||
Total | 1 |
Huang, H. 1998. New Lycaenidae butterflies from the Tsangpo basin, S.E. Tibet. Supplement to "Research on the butterflies of the Namjagbarwa Region, S.E. Tibet" (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Lambillionea 98/4:499-508.
Huang, H. 2001. Report of H. Huang's 2000 expedition to SE. Tibet for Rhopalocera (Insecta, Lepidoptera). Neue Entomologische Nachrichten 51:65-151.
Page citation
Kunte, K. 2024. Cigaritis zhengweilie Huang, 1998 – Contiguous Silverline. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/Cigaritis-zhengweilie, accessed 2024/12/05.