Polyommatus karindus

Polyommatus karindus
Polyommatus karindus saravandi male upperside (left) and underside (right)
Polyommatus karindus saravandi female upperside (left) and underside (right)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Tribe:	Polyommatini
Genus:	Polyommatus
Species:	P. karindus
Binomial name
Polyommatus karindus (Riley, 1921)[1]
Synonyms
Lycaena dama karinda Riley, 1921 Polyommatus karinda Agrodiaetus karindus

Polyommatus karindus is a butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. It was described by Riley in 1921. It is only known from the Iranian Zagros range. The habitat consists of dry slopes, gorges and plateaus with xerophyte or steppe vegetation, sometimes wooded areas from 1,800 up to 2,800 meters.^[2]

The length of the forewings is 30–36 mm. The ground colour of the males is bright blue with an azure tint. The discoidal, submarginal and antemarginal marking are absent on both fore- and hindwings. The black outer marginal line on the forewings and hindwings is very narrow. The forewing hind margin has a long white pubescence. The fringes of both wings are dark grey and tips of the hindwing veins are indicated with fine black. The female ground colour is brown with vastly darker veins. There are discoidal black spots present on the forewings and the submarginal markings are dark brown with the orange submarginal lunules well developed on the forewing and hindwings. The fringe is greyish brown.

Subspecies

• Polyommatus karindus karindus
• Polyommatus karindus saravandi Shapoval & Lukhtanov, 2015 (Central part of Zagros Mountains, Iran)

References

1. Polyommatus at funet.fi
2. Taxonomic interpretation of chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA variability in the species complex close to Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) dama (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)