Acrodipsas myrmecophila

Acrodipsas myrmecophila (Waterhouse & Lyell, 1913)
Small Ant-blue
(previously known as Pseudodipsas myrmecophila)
LUCIINI, THECLINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

Acrodipsas myrmecophila
(Photo: courtesy of Dave Britton, Australian Museum)

These Caterpillars appear to feed by sucking the juices from ant larvae and pupae, living in the nests of :

Coconut Ant ( Papyrius nitidus, DOLICHODERINAE ).

ants tending Acrodipsas myrmecophila eggs
(Photo: courtesy of Dave Britton, Australian Museum)

The eggs white, mandarin-shaped, and have a height of about 0.6 mm. They are laid in batches of about 50 near an ant nest at the base of a tree or stump. The ants then appear to extend the nest to cover them. It is possible that the ants also actually feed the Caterpillars. The caterpillars are initially white with black heads and a dark dorsal band. Later they become brown with green and white markings, and have a little knob on the tail. They grow to a length of about 2 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The caterpillars crawl into a crevice in or near the ant nest in order to pupate. The pupa has a length of about 1 cm.

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

The upper surfaces of the wings of the female adults are dark brown with a large iridescent blue patch in the middle of each wing. The females have a wingspan of about 2.5 cms.

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

The males are slightly smaller, having a wingspan of about 2 cms. They are similar in colour to the females, with dark brown on top, but with no blue patch.

Female: underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The undersurfaces of both sexes are similar: fawn with brown spots edged with white, and with two black and orange spots by the trailing edge of each hind wing.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Mount Piper, Victoria)

The eggs are brown, and shaped like partly squashed spheres, covered with a dense network of pale ribs. The diameter an egg is about 0.8 mm.

The species occurs in

Northern Territory,

Queensland, and

New South Wales,

Australian Capital Territory, and

Victoria, where it is listed as endangered.

The conservation of this species has been the subject of study by David Britton and Tim New.