Surendra vivarna

Surendra vivarna, the acacia blue, is a species of lycaenid or hairstreak butterfly found in Sri Lanka, India and the Indonesian islands as far as Sulawesi.

Range
Its range is similar to that of its genus, Surendra, except it is not recorded from China or the Philippines proper (where it is replaced by S. maniliana), but from Balabac, Palawan and the Calamian Islands.

Description
"Upperside: both wings rather intense deep blue: primaries with the costa broadly, posterior margin more broadly, apex still more broadly black ; secondaries with the blue limited to just over the median area, the rest of the wings black. Tails two, black, the longer one white-tipped. Underside : both wings very dark greyish brown: primaries with an obscure dark dot near the centre of the cell and a small dash closing it, costa with three dark dots; transverse blackish line curved irregularly and scalloped from the costa to the submedian nervure, a submarginal row of blackish dots, margin obscurely dark, internal area quite pale: secondaries with a small white spot about one-third along the costal nervure, below which is an obscure dark short dash in the cell; from two-thirds along the costa to the middle of the abdominal margin is a narrow, indefinite, obscure band of dark shading edged externally and sharply with white, a submarginal row of dark spots forming an almost lunular line; on each side of the long tail is a slight grey scaling.

Upperside: both wings entirely dark brown. Underside as in the male, but decidedly paler."

- Bethune-Baker

Subspecies

 * Surendra vivarna amisena Hewitson, 1862, (South Burma, Thailand, Malaya, and Sumatra)
 * Surendra vivarna palowna Staudinger, 1889, (Borneo)
 * Surendra vivarna samina Fruhstorfer, 1904, (Sulawesi)
 * Surendra vivarna agdistis Fruhstorfer (Nias)
 * Surendra vivarna biplagiata Butler, 1883 (southern India)
 * Surendra vivarna latimargo Moore, 1879 (Andamans)
 * Surendra vivarna discalis Moore (Sri Lanka)

Food plants
Fabaceae (Acacia, Albizia, Paraserianthes) and it is facultatively attended by various ants.