''Nacaduba cyanea'', the tailed green-banded line-blue, is a species of butterfly in the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

, and formerly considered a member of the genus '' Danis''. It is found in the

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(Irian Jaya, Maluku),

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

(Queensland). The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 30 mm. Adult males are blue with a dark brown wing margin, with a pale blue to white patch on the hindwing. Females are white, with a black border around the wings and a row of blue-edged black spots. The larvae feed on ''

Entada phaseoloides ''Entada phaseoloides'' commonly named the box bean or St. Thomas’ bean, first described by Linnaeus, with its current name described by Merrill. ''E. phaseoloides'' is a liana in the pea family: called ''gugo'', ''balugo'' or ''tamayan'' in t ...

'' and ''

Entada scandens ''Entada rheedii'', commonly known as African dream herb or snuff box sea bean, and as the cacoon vine in Jamaica, is a large woody liana or climber of the Mimosa Family (Mimosaceae). The vine can grow as long as 120 meters (393.7 feet). Their se ...

''. They are bright green, with pale brown heads. The larvae are attended to by ants of the genus ''

Anonychomyrma ''Anonychomyrma'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Dolichoderinae. Distribution and habitat The genus is mainly distributed in New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Australia; a single species is known from Malaysia and Indonesia. They nest on the ...

''. Pupation takes place in a brown pupa with dark markings.

Gallery

File:Nacaduba cyanea 4544.jpg, Green-banded line-blue in Cairns Image:Nacaduba cyanea.jpg, Green-banded line-blue at Mission Beach

Subspecies

* ''N. c. arinia'' (Oberthür, 1878) (Torres Straits Islands, Cooktown to Ingham) - tailed green-banded blue * ''N. c. carissima'' (Grose-Smith & Kirby, 1895) (Flores, Pura, Tanimbar, Timor) * ''N. c. chromia'' (Druce, 1891) (northern Solomons) * ''N. c. cyanea'' (Cramer, 1775) (Ambon, Seram) * ''N. c. epicoritus'' (Boisduval, 1832) (Aru, Gebe, New Guinea, Waigeo) * ''N. c. hamilcar'' (Grose-Smith, 1894) (Admiralty Islands, Bismarck Archipelago) * ''N. c. illustris'' (Röber, 1886) (Kai Islands) * ''N. c. murua'' (Tennent, 2015) (Woodlark Island) * ''N. c. obiana'' (Fruhstorfer, 1915) (Obi) * ''N. c. pindus'' (C. & R. Felder,

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(Bacan, Halmahera, Morotai, Ternate, Salawati) * ''N. c. rosselana'' (Bethune-Baker, 1908) (Louisade Archipelago) * ''N. c. sanane'' (Tennent & Gassó Miracle, 2016)Tennent, W. J. & Gassó Miracle, M. E. (2016)
"A new subspecies of ''Nacaduba cyanea'' Cramer, 1775, from Buru, Maluku, Indonesia (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)"
''Tijdschrift voor Entomologie'' 159 (2): 81-88. (Buru) * ''N. c. smaragdus'' (Druce & Bethune-Baker, 1893) (Dammer, Wetar)

References

Butterflies described in 1775 Nacaduba Taxa named by Pieter Cramer {{Polyommatini-stub