Philiris nitens

Philiris nitens (Grose-Smith, 1898)
Blue Moonbeam
(previously known as Holochila nitens)
LUCIINI, THECLINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

Philiris nitens
(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

These Caterpillars are green with a cream dorsal line, cream mottling generally, and dense hairy sides.

(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

The caterpillars have been found feeding on :

Little Cheese Tree ( Glochidion philippicum, PHYLLANTHACEAE ), and

Brown Macaranga ( Macaranga involucrata, EUPHORBIACEAE ).

The caterpillar rests under a leaf near the base by a vein, where it is well camouflaged.

(Photos: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

The pupa is green with a cream dorsal line and brown patches. Its length is about 1 cm. It is usually attached to the underside of a leaf of its foodplant.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

The adult butterflies are brown on top, with a large coloured patch on each wing. For males, this patch is mainly an iridescent blue.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

For females, this patch is largely white.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

Underneath, both sexes are white with black dots around the tornus of each hindwing.

female, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Bob Miller and Ian Hill)

The butterflies have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Cairns, Queensland)

The eggs are spherical and blue, covered with a network of minute spiky ribs The eggs have a diameter of about 0.5 mm. They are laid singly on a leaf or stem of a foodplant.

The species occurs in

north Queensland.

Philiris nitens was previously thought to have two subspecies occurring in Australia. Those two subspecies are now recognised to be two separate species: Philiris nitens and Philiris lucina.

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 684-685.

Graham R. Forbes,
Comparison of the immature stages of Philiris sappheira manskiei Ring and Olive, and P. nitens nitens (Grose-Smith) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae),
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 58 (September 2010), pp. 9-14.

Henley Grose-Smith,
Descriptions of new species of Oriental butterflies,
Novitates Zoologicae,
Volume 5, Part 1 (1898), p. 107, No. 11.

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.

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(updated 24 June 2008, 14 August 2024)