Cigaritis lohita (Horsfield, [1829]) - Long-banded Silverline

Subspecies in India

(1) Cigaritis lohita lazularia (Moore, [1881]) – Tamil Long-banded Silverline
(2) Cigaritis lohita himalayanus (Moore, 1884) – Himalayan Long-banded Silverline
(3) Cigaritis lohita senama (Fruhstorfer, [1912]) – Myanmarese Long-banded Silverline
(4) Cigaritis lohita zoilus (Moore, 1877) – Andaman Long-banded Silverline

Taxonomic Information

This species is sometimes listed under the genus Spindasis. Recent phylogenetic work shows Spindasis to be embedded within Cigaritis, so this species is now treated under Cigaritis.

 

Conservation and Special status

 This species is legally protected in India under Schedule II of the WildLife (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022.

 

Photo Gallery and Species Biology

This species has been recorded so far from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, within the Indian limits.

This species has a wide distribution in South and SE Asia. It is well known from India in the Western Ghats (ssp. lazularia), Himalaya (ssp. himalayanus) and the Andaman Islands (ssp. zoilus). The image published on the Butterflies of India website (BOI-cm305) on 2017/09/14, extends the known distribution of this species well within central India. This is also the first record for Madhya Pradesh. Subspecies identity of this and other records from Central and Eastern India needs to be verified, so at present we have only mentioned species name for those records.

 

This is a common species.

 

StateJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecNo date
Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT211
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh4311361131
Assam562213622
Bihar
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh
Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT
Daman & Diu UT
Delhi
Goa11
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir UT
Jharkhand
Karnataka3124116863
Kerala111311032
Ladakh UT
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh11
Maharashtra183116147106651732
Manipur1
Meghalaya9
Mizoram11
Nagaland141
Odisha81
Puducherry UT
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim1415
Tamil Nadu211
Telangana
Tripura1311
Uttar Pradesh1
Uttarakhand21111
West Bengal1231113
Total253838273024131536363440

Carissa carandas (Apocynanceae). Terminalia paniculata (Combretaceae). Dioscorea pentaphylla (Dioscoreaceae). Xylia xylocarpa (Fabaceae). Ixora brachiata, Smilax zeylanica (Smilacaceae). Also, Convolvulaceae.

BOI-pqk613 , BOI-pqk614 , BOI-pqk615 , BOI-pqk616 de804 , de803 , de802 , de801 bq282 , bq281 , bq280 , bq279 em544 , em543 , em542 , em541 BOI-pqh356 BOI-pny800 bt995 bt994 cd364 an830 an831 gd266 aw106 aw107 as222 au998 gd928 bt328 bn924 an349 aj594 aq814 aq813 BOI-pnb983 , BOI-pnb984 bu120 , bu119 aw127 , aw128 ex202 , ex201 bk693 , bk692 bs869 , bs868 bt313 , bt312 as208 , as209 em540 , em539 bu616 , bu615 , bu614 gd269 , gd268 , gd267 fz746 , fz745 , fz744 , fz743 , fz742 , fz741 , fz740 , fz739 ey814 , ey813 , ey812 , ey811 , ey810 , ey809 , ey808 dm136 , dm135 , dm134 , dm133 , dm132 , dm131 , dm130

Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10:11495–11550.

For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.

 

Page citation

Aneesha, S., and K. Kunte. 2026. Cigaritis lohita (Horsfield, [1829]) – Long-banded Silverline. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/Cigaritis-lohita, accessed 2026/06/08.