| Twin Dusky-blue (formerly known as Candalides geminus) CANDALIDINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
female
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
This Caterpillar is green with a dark line along the back, and yellow lines along the sides edged in purple. There are red tubercles along the back. It feeds openly by day on :
It grows to a length of about 1.5 cms.
The pupa is pale brown with dark markings, and has a lenght of about 1.3 cms. It is held by anal hooks and girdle on the food or a nearby plant.
The male butterflies on top are a bronzed purple. The females are dark brown with a purple sheen over the centres of the forewings. The adult butterflies have a wingspan of about 3 cms.
Underneath, they are both pale grey with arcs of dark marks, and there are two prominent black spots under the tornus of each forewing.
The eggs are white, round, and flattened with a rough surface. Their diameter is about 0.7 mm. They are laid singly on flower buds of a foodplant.
This species is found in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 766-767.
Ted (E.D.) Edwards & John Foxton Ross Kerr,
A new species of Candalides from eastern Australia and
notes on Candalides hyacinthinus (Semper) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae),
Australian Entomological Magazine,
Volume 4, Part 5 (1978), p. 82.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 17 March 2004, 23 December 2023)