Acrodipsas melania Sands, 1980 Grey Ant-blue LUCIINI,   THECLINAE,   LYCAENIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adults of this species are brown, with a slight blue iridescence on the upper surface of each wing. There are two or three obscure black spots near the tornus of each hindwing.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

Underneath, the wings are basically fawn, with arcs of outlined brown splodges. Each of the four wings has a black spot under the tornus. The butterflies have a wing span of about 2 cms.

They are found in the tropical north of Australia, including the

Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.

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Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 637-638.

Donald Peter Andrew Sands,
A new genus, Acrodipsas, for a group of Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera) previously referred to Pseudodipsas C. & R. Felder, with descriptions of two new species from northern Queensland,
Journal of the Australian Entomological Society,
Volume 18, Part 3 (1980), p. 257.

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(updated 23 February 2002, 23 December 2023)