Bindahara phocides, the plane,^[1][2] is a small butterfly found Indomalayan (including Sri Lanka, India)^[1] and Australasian realms that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family.^[1][2][3]

Quick Facts Plane, Scientific classification ...

Plane
Bindahara phocides isabella Indonesia
Bindahara phocides moorei Ceylon Courvoisier Collection, Basel
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Bindahara
Species:	B. phocides
Binomial name
Bindahara phocides (Fabricius 1793)

Close

Male. Upperside dark fuliginous-brown. Forewing without markings. lllndwing with the tail, anal lobe, and a small anal patch dull ochreous; a small indistinct spot on the anal lobe. Underside pale ochreous-brown. Forewing, a black spot at the base of the cell, a dark brown, broad, outwardly curved band with irregular ochreous edges, from the costal nervure to a little below the median vein, crossing the cell somewhat beyond its middle, with pale indications of its continuation hindwards, a pale brown line, edged on both sides with ochreous at the end of the cell; a dark brown, broad discal band, from the costa to a little below the sub-median vein, composed of conjoined squarish spots, the first four outwardly oblique, the others commencing a little inwards nearly straight down the wing, narrowing gradually hindwards; indications of a pale brown, sub-marginal, double series of lunular marks. Hindwing with a basal blackish-brown spot, a larger one immediately below the costal vein, two smaller ones in a line below it, two conjoined spots closing the cell, a discal very irregular band, commencing from the costal vein where there is a large square blackish-brown spot attached to it below, half outwards is a similar spot, with a smaller blackish-brown spot attached to its lower side half outwards; these are followed by a curiously formed series of five small paler spots, the first well outside, a parallel pair below it and another similar pair below and inwards; then there is an indistinct pair below these joined on the inner side to a heart-shaped pale spot with brown edges, with a curving sinuous brown line attached, which bends inwards and upwards near the abdominal margin at its middle and runs up it to the base in a series of indistinct spots, all edged with ochreous; a sub-terminal series of lunules enclosing two blackish spots with scattered metallic greenish scales and a prominent black spot on the anal lobe, all of which vary much in different examples, and are sometimes obscure. Antennse black, paler on the underside, with white dots; head and body above and below concolorous with the wings. Female. Upperside brown, with a bronzy gloss in certain lights, a pure white patch divided by the brown veins, on the lower end of the hindwing, margined outwardly with a blackish anteciliary line, containing a large black round spot at the base of the tail on the outer side and another smaller and less distinct spot on the inner side, a black spot on the anal lobe. Underside white, bauds and spots paler than in the male, but similarly disposed.

— Charles Swinhoe, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IX^[3]

The subspecies are:^[2]

• B. p. phocides Sikkim - Myanmar, South Yunnan
• B. p. fumata (Röber, 1887) Sulawesi, Talaud, Banggai, Sula
• B. p. moorei Fruhstorfer, 1904 Sri Lanka, south India^[1]

"Male and female, similar to the nominate subspecies above and below in both sexes, except that on the upperside of the hindwing there is a narrow, terminal blue-green band from near the apex to vein 2."^[3]

• B. p. phocas Staudinger, 1889 Palawan
• B. p. chromis (Mathew, 1887) Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons
• B. p. isabella (Felder, 1860) Cape York - Townsvill
• B. p. origenes Fruhstorfer, 1912 Philippines (Mindanao)

The larva feeds on Salacia.

• At Mount Harriet National Park in the Andamans
• B. p. moorei

• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)