''Neolysandra coelestina'' is a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
found in the
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
that belongs to the
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
family.
Subspecies
* ''N. c. coelestina'' South Europe, NorthTuran, Southwest Siberia
* ''N. c. alticola''
(Christoph, 1886) Armenia (highland), Caucasus, Asia Minor, Kurdistan
* ''N. c. iranica''
(Pfeiffer, 1938) North Iran
* ''N. c. saadii''
Eckweiler & Schurian, 1980 Iran
Description from Seitz
L. coelestina Ev. (82 c). Male reddish violet-blue (not so deep blue as in our figure), similar in colour to ''athis'' with black border and black discocellular spot; hindwing with black marginal dots. Female black brown, with obsolescent reddish yellow submarginal spots. The underside is very characteristical, the hindwing beneath being dusted with bright metallic pale blue from the base close to the margin. In the South Eussian steppes, at Sarepta, Orenburg, etc . in the Caucasus. — ''alticola'' Christ, is a smaller form from Armenia with the ocelli of the hindwing beneath obsolescent, the verdigris-dusting occupying nearly the whole hindwing, and with broader border to the upperside of the forewing. In June.
[Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) ]
Biology
The larva feeds on ''
Melilotus
''Melilotus'', known as melilot, sweet clover, and kumoniga (from the Cumans),Bulgarian Folk Customs, Mercia MacDermott, pg 27 is a genus in the family Fabaceae (the same family that also includes the ''Trifolium'' clovers). Members are known ...
'', ''
Trifolium
Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus h ...
'', ''
Anthyllis vulneraria
''Anthyllis vulneraria'', the common kidneyvetch, kidney vetch or woundwort is a medicinal plant native to Europe. The name ''vulneraria'' means "wound healer".
Description
''Anthyllis vulneraria'' reaches of height. The stem is simple or more ...
'' , ''
Vicia cracca
''Vicia cracca'' (tufted vetch, cow vetch, bird vetch, blue vetch, boreal vetch), is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia. It occurs on other continents as an introduced species, includ ...
''
See also
*
List of butterflies of Russia
This is a list of butterflies of Russia. About 540 species are known from Russia. The butterflies (mostly diurnal) and moths (mostly nocturnal) together make up the taxonomic order Lepidoptera.
The history of lepidopterology in Russia is connec ...
References
Polyommatini
{{Polyommatini-stub