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The Blues (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae, Lycaeninae) of Papua Indonesia

by Stefan Schröder

 

Philiris argentea (Rothschild, 1916)

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Distribution

 

 

 

 

 

STATUS: A rare species. The holotype of argentea was described from the Utakwa River and a female from the Setekwa River/Snow Mtns. was proposed as neallotype by Tite. However, this assignment was questioned by Parsons (1998) and the female was therefore regarded as unknown from West Papua. Both D’Abrera (1977) and Parsons assigned a female with almost completely brown wings but a small blue patch on the forewing upperside. This species was recently discovered on Japen Island and possibly this population may belong to a new subspecies.

PAPUA LOCALITIES: Japen Island; New Guinea: Utakwa River. Details in gazetteer.

EXTERNAL DISTRIBUTION: Papua New Guinea.

DATA SOURCES: Literature (see below).

 

 

 

 

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Literature

Parson, M., 1998. The butterflies of Papua New Guinea. Their systematics and biology: 736 pp., Academic Press, London.
Tite, G.E., 1963. A revision of the genus Candalides and allied genera (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology Supplement, 14: 199-259.