Rounded Sixline Blue?

[robin ngiam]

Hi,

Am having difficulty id this Lycaeninae.
Is this a Rounded Sixline Blue? If yes, how to tell this apart from Opaque Sixline Blue?

thanks
Robin

[Psyche]

This is a female Rounded Sixline Blue (N. berenice).

6-line Blues are particularly difficult & confusing.
It is very useful to determine the sex of the individual.
Female have a pointed apex immediately followed by a rounded wing margin (termen). The abdominal tip is pointed.
Male have somewhat blunt tip & a straighter margin.(Very difficult to see with perspective distortion.) The abdominal tip is truncated and brush-like.

Thankfully we now a verified female beroe(Thanks to Sunny) and a verified female calauria(Thanks to Horace.).
The female beroe have big marginal spots & a rather broad submarginal band on the forewing, both dark. See here.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/forum...ad.php?t=11645

Of more concern is the similarity to the female calauria.
The female calauria also have large marginal spots but the submarginal band have a very irregular margin as in berenice. See.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1271/...65181a03d4.jpg
The submarginal band/spots can also be very narrow. See here.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/check...20-%20Khew.jpg

Here is a pair of N. berenice. The dull male on the left is typical male berenice with pale narrow spots, so there is no doubt of the female here.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/check...wbutterfly/187

TL Seow

[robin ngiam]

thanks very much Seow,
cheers