Common imperial
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Cheritra
Species:	C. freja
Binomial name
Cheritra freja (Fabricius 1793)

Cheritra freja, the common imperial,^[1][2][3] is a small butterfly found in India,^[1] Indochina, Malaysia and Sri Lanka^[4] that belongs to the gossamer-winged butterflies family (Lycaenidae).^[2][3]

The subspecies of Cheritra freja are-^[1][2][3]

• Cheritra freja freja - Myanmar, Thailand
• Cheritra freja butleri Cowan, 1965 – south India
• Cheritra freja evansi Cowan, 1965 – northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam
• Cheritra freja fracta Cowan, 1967 – Bangka
• Cheritra freja frigga Fruhstorfer, 1912 – peninsular Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra
• Cheritra freja jafra (Godart, [1824]) – Java, Bali
• Cheritra freja pallida (Druce, 1873) – Borneo, Pulau Laut
• Cheritra freja pseudojafra Moore, [1881] – Sri Lanka
• Cheritra freja sabanga Toxopeus, 1929 – Pulau Weh

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.^[5]

• Life cycle
• 
  Eggs
• 
  Larvae
• 
  Chrysalis
• 
  Chrysalis
• 
  Imago (dorsal view)
• 
  Imago (ventral view)

• List of butterflies of India
• List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)

• Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society.
• Gaonkar, Harish (1996). Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a Threatened Mountain System. Bangalore, India: Centre for Ecological Sciences.
• Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac David; Punetha, Jagdish Chandra (1992). Common Butterflies of India. Nature Guides. Bombay, India: World Wide Fund for Nature-India by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195631647.
• Haribal, Meena (1992). The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History. Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation.
• Kunte, Krushnamegh (2000). Butterflies of Peninsular India. India, A Lifescape. Hyderabad, India: Universities Press. ISBN 978-8173713545.
• Wynter-Blyth, Mark Alexander (1957). Butterflies of the Indian Region. Bombay, India: Bombay Natural History Society. ISBN 978-8170192329.