![]() | Diana or Large Moonbeam LUCIINI, THECLINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
The female adult butterfly of this species has forewings each with a black upper surface, but with a large blue and white area extending from the base. The hindwings are black each with a pale blue and white area around the wingtip, and along the hind margin..
The male butterfly has mauve forewings, each with a white patch in the middle. The hindwings are mauve, each with white stripes along the costa and hind margin. Both sexes are white underneath.
The species is found in:
Philiris diana was previously thought to have two subspecies occurring in Australia. Those two subspecies are now recognised to be two separate species: Philiris diana and Philiris papuana.
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 679-680.
Donald Peter Andrew Sands,
Review of Australian Philiris Röber (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), with notes on variation and descriptions of two new subspecies from Cape York peninsula,
Australian Entomologist,
Volume 42, Part 4 (2015), pp. 219-252.
Gustavus Athol Waterhouse & George Lyell,
The Butterflies of Australia,
Angus & Robertson, 1914, Sydney, p. 76, No. 87,
and also
Fig. 183, as well as
Figs. 270, 271.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(updated 22 June 2008, 22 November 2013, 7 August 2020, 8 September 2021)