Zizeeria karsandra, the dark grass blue, is a small butterfly first described by Frederic Moore in 1865. It is found from the southern Mediterranean, in a broad band to India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, (1975). Butterflies of West Malaysia & Singapore Yunnan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman, New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia. (1999). The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea. Academic Press. It belongs to the lycaenids or blues family, and the tribe Polyommatini. (1973). "The higher classification of the Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera): a tentative arrangement". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Entomology. 28: 371-505.
Description Frederic Moore described this species on 1865 as: "Upperside purple-brown. Underside greyish brown, exterior margins defined by a brown line: fore wing with a spot within discoidal cell, a discocellular streak, a spot above it, and a transverse discal series of six spots black, each encircled with white; a marginal and submarginal row of pale brown, white-bordered lunules: hind wing with a series of twelve black spots, and a pale discocellular streak, encircled with white; a marginal row of pale brown, whitish-encircled spots, and a submarginal row of whitish lunules: cilia greyish brown."
Food plants The recorded food plants include: Zornia diphylla Amaranthus viridis (in association with the ant Tapinoma melanocephalum) Amaranthus tricolor Amaranthus viridis Melilotus indica Medicago sativa Zornia diphylla Trifolium alexandrinum Glinus lotoides Tribulus cistoides Tribulus terrestris
Gallery
See also
List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)
References