| Delicate Blue (previously known as Lycaena cardia) POLYOMMATINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Picture: courtesy of
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences)
|
| Delicate Blue (previously known as Lycaena cardia) POLYOMMATINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Picture: courtesy of
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences)
The male and female adults are different. On top, the males are blue with a white patch on each wing, and a black margin to each forewing, and a spotted margin to each hindwing.
The females have a larger large white patch on each wing, and only a metallic blue suffusion at the base of each wing.
Underneath, the sexes are similar. They are white with a series of dark spots and arcs. The butterflies have a wing span of about 2 cms.
The species occurs in south-east Asia as a number of subspecies, including
as well as in Australia as the subspecies tenella Miskin, 1891, in a small area of
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, p. 849.
Baron Cajetan von Felder,
Lepidopterorum Amboienensium species novae diagnosibus,
Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien,
Volume 40, Series 11 (1860), p. 459, No. 42.
William Henry Miskin,
Synonymical catalogue of the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera (Butterflies) of Australia
Annals of the Queensland Museum,
Volume 1 (1891), pp. 63-64, No. 16.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 17 March 2004, 28 December 2023)