Banded Blue Pierrot

Banded Blue Pierrot

Discolampa ethion vavasanus

Fruhstorfer LYCAENIDAE

(=Castalius ethion ( Doubleday and Hewitson )

Adult

Male upperside dark violet-black. FW with a broad white band edged with blue and black outer margins. Female dark brown with white band not edged with blue. Tail black. Underside bluish white with 2 oblique black bands almost parallel to each other, outer bigger spots and marginal row of smaller spots; spots in the anal region spekled with metallic green scales. Wingspan 26-30mm.

Only one in South India to have a defined white band on a shiny blue background. Confined to the thick jungles in the regions of heavy rainfall and keeps to low elevations on the hills with weak flight. Often found near streams and jungle clearings where it settles less frequently on the moist sand on the banks of the stream. Fond of human sweat also.

Larva

Greenish with a faint dorsal band and thickly covered with white hairs

Feeds on Ber, Jackal Ber etc.

Distribution

India, Srilanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and New Guinea.