Colotis phisadia
| Blue-Spotted Arab | |
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| Species: | C. phisadia
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| Binomial name | |
| Colotis phisadia (Godart, 1819)
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The Blue-Spotted Arab (Colotis phisadia) is a small butterfly of the Family Pieridae, that is, the Yellows and Whites, which is found in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Arabia, the Near East and India.
Description
- See glossary for terms used
Upperside of male forewing has a pale salmon-pink ground colour, this colour paler outwardly ; base heavily irrorated with bluish-grey scales that extend outwards and are merged with a black patch that occupies the apex of the cell and spreads along the discocellulars ; terminal third of wing black with enclosed spots of the ground-colour in interspaces 3, 4, 5 and 9, the spot in 4 sometimes absent, the inner edge of the black area emarginate at interspaces 2 and 4 ; the outer margin with a series of minute terminal specks of ground-colour in the interspaces. Hind wing : white, base heavily irrorated with bluish-grey scales that are extended downwards in a diffuse band parallel to the dorsum ; terminal half of wing jet-black. Underside: precisely like the underside of C. protractus male. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in C. protractus.
Female is very variable, but resembles the male in markings. On the upperside however, the terminal areas on both fore and hind wings that are black in the male are silky-brown on the fore wing, the inner sinuate margin of the same posteriorly black ; on the hind wing the terminal brown area encloses an irregular sinuate black band that does not extend either to the costa or the dorsum. The groundcolour of the fore wing in some specimens is faintly pink fading to white outwardly ; on the hind wing the ground-colour is white, as in the male . In other specimens the ground-colour on both fore and hind wings is entirely white or pinkish orange. Underside : as in the male, but the apical area of the fore and the whole surface of the hind wing tinged more or less with ochraceous. In many individuals (probably of the dry-season broods) this ochraceous tint is very marked. Fore wing : with posterior black spots as in the male. Hind wing : an irregular discal sinuate macular brown band that is often obsolescent. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen much as in the male.[1]
Distribution
"The only records of the occurrence of this form within our limits are : a 6 specimen in the Indian Museum labelled "Surat;" Dr. Manders got a single specimen at Multan in the Punjab; and Mabille gives it, but on what authority I do not know, from "Northern India."[1]
Life history
Larva. Larva feeds on Salvadora persica. The following is a description of it:—Pea-green when young, two black spots on the back of the head, a white mark almost the shape of an ace of diamonds, but rather longer, on the second segment; when older, the black spots on the head disappear and the white mark gets clearer and is outlined with black. There are two similar marks just beyond the centre of the back, the front one being the smaller, and another similar mark on the eleventh segment." (Nurse quoted in Bingham)[1]
Pupa. As figured is stout, pale brown, more or less mottled with darker brown, in shape mainly cylindrical, with the wing-cases moderately developed; the head ends in a very sharp point.[1]
Subspecies
- Colotis phisadia phisadia (Mauritania, northern Senegal, Mali, north-eastern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, northern Ethiopia, western and southern Arabia)
- Colotis phisadia ocellatus (Butler, 1886) (Ethiopia)
- Colotis phisadia palaestinensis Staudinger, 1898
- Colotis phisadia rothschildi (Sharpe, 1898) (Kenya)
- Colotis phisadia somalica Storace, 1948 (Somalia)
- Colotis phisadia vagus d’Abrera, 1980 (northern Uganda, northern Kenya)