Insect

Plains Cupid

Luthrodes pandava

Plains Cupid (Luthrodes pandava) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj — Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name: Luthrodes pandava
Family: Lycaenidae, order Lepidoptera
Group: Insect

A tiny butterfly that raises its young on cycads.

Spot it Grey-brown wings with a blue wash and tiny spots below.
Home Gardens with cycads.
Food web Caterpillars eat young cycad leaves.
Why it matters Its caterpillars feed on cycads, a close link between one insect and one ancient plant; adults pollinate flowers.

Read more: Luthrodes pandava on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 5 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2018 and 2023, in Jaipur.^[20]
RajasthanHis note on one photo reads “Cycas revoluta – Sago Palm Larval Host Plant. Chilades: pandava – Plains Cupid”.^[20]

Sources

Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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