Spindasis

Spindasis
Spindasis syama, now Cigaritis syama, Nepal
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Spindasis

Spindasis is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae, which John Nevill Eliot,^[1] 1973, places in the tribe Aphnaeini of the subfamily Lycaeninae. The butterflies are easily recognised by the silvery markings on the underside and the two hindwing tails, of which the one at vein 1b is longer.

Spindasis was synonymised with the older genus Cigaritis Donzel, by Heath et al, 2002,^[2] and this synonymy is followed in Williams.^[3] Hence, this page is redundant and a more complete species list is included under Cigaritis. But, Larsen thought they close relatives but in ecology and biogeography level is different, so has separated three genera.^[4]

Range

The genus occurs typically in Africa; in the Oriental region it is distributed from Sri Lanka to Japan, Sundaland and the Philippines.

References

1. Eliot, J. N. 1973. "The Higher Classification of the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera): A Tentative Arrangement" Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 28/6.
2. Heath, A., Newport, M.A., & Hancock, D., 2002. The butterflies of Zambia. African Butterfly Research Institute and The Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa. i-xvii, 1-137.
3. Williams, M.Afrotropical Butterflies.
4. Larsen, Torben B. 2005 Butterflies of West Africa. Stenstrup, Denmark: Apollo Books , ISBN 978-8788757439.