18. Euchrysops cnejus cnejus (The Gram Blue)

Number: 18
Family: Lycaeniidae

Sub-Family: Polyommatiinae

Species: Euchrysops cnejus cnejus (Fabricius, 1798)

Common name(s): The Gram Blue

Photography location: Hanoi 

The genus Euchrysops comprises of 31 species, all but one of which are Afrotropical in distribution. The remaining species, E. cnejus, is found from India to the South Pacific and Australia.

E. cnejus is primarily a savannah species but is invasive in degraded forest habitats, farmland, urban parks...

Euchrysops cnejus, suburbs of Hanoi

Upperwings of male are pale purplish suffused with a bluish shade, apparent only in certain lights

 The female is darker above, and its hindwing has submarginal spots bordered with a dark sinuate line and larger and more prominent orange-crowned tornal spots in spaces 1b and 2