The adult male butterflies have forewings that are pale metallic blue with broad black margins. The females have forewings that are mainly black with some blue central areas on the wings.

female, drawing by Hamilton Herbert Druce,
On the Lycaenidae of the Solomon Islands,
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1891, Part 3, fig. 21,
courtesy of the Natural History Museum Library, London.

The hindwings have an arc of dark spots and chevrons around the rear margin, and a little tail at the tornus. Underneath, they are fawn with rows of white dashes and white chevrons around the margins. The hindwings each have a black spot by the tail. The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.

underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The species occurs in

and occasionally in Australia in

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 824-825.

Hamilton Herbert Druce,
On the Lycaenidae of the Solomon Islands,
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,
1891, Part 3, pp. 366-367, and also Plate 31, figs. 20-21.

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(updated 30 April 2004, 15 November 2013, 4 August 2020)