Rapala lankana
species of insect
Rapala lankana, the Malabar flash, is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in South India and Sri Lanka. It was first described by Frederic Moore in 1879.
Description
Male: Upperside: Both wings deep purple, almost dull black, but in certain lights the whole of the hindwing and the lower discal area of the forewing glossed with magnificent rich purple. Hindwing with the anal lobe centred with ferruginous.
Underside: Both wings pale ferruginous towards the base, becoming gradually darker towards the margin. Forewing with a somewhat broad straight discal deep ferruginous band from the costa almost reaching the sub-median nervure, its outer edge very even, its inner edge a little irregular. Hindwing with a similar discal band, but posteriorly curved up to the abdominal margin; the anal lobe black, a deep ferruginous spot in the first median interspace on the margin, with some indistinct white speckles between, the discal band also bordered with white on both sides above the anal lobe.
Female: Upperside: Both wings pale violet-brown, marginal line black. Cilia pale ferruginous, at anal angle of hindwing and beyond the tail white. Hindwing with the anal lobe ferruginous, tail black.
The public source identifies “Rapala lankana” as species of insect. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rapala, lankana and species.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q21310186. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1879.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rapala lankana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.