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Cheritra freja, the common imperial, is a small butterfly found in India, Myanmar, Malaysia and Sri Lanka that belongs to the gossamer-winged butterflies family (Lycaenidae).
The butterfly has a brown upperside with white bands. The hindwings consist of a tail. It is coloured from pale yellow to white on the lower side with black margins.
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Above, the male is purplish brown and the female is dark brown. Both sexes have large quadrate tornal spots in spaces 1b and 2 of the hindwing. These spots are outlined in white, more broadly so in the female than in the male. Underneath, both sexes are mostly white and have orange brown shadings on nearly the entire forewing and just the apical area of the hindwing. There is a narrow, indistinct ochreous brown post-discal line on the forewing. On the hindwing, the post-discal line occurs in short stripes and becomes darker and bolder towards the lower half of the wing. In addition, there is an interrupted dark submarginal line, a series of tornal spots on the tornal lobe and spaces 1b, 2 and 3. Metallic bluish green scalings overlay these spots. A long filamentous tail, up to 25mm, occurs at the end of vein 2. In contrast, a much shorter tail occurs at the end of vein 1b.
