| White-banded Line-blue POLYOMMATINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Todd Burrows, South Stradbroke Island, Queensland)
|
| White-banded Line-blue POLYOMMATINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Todd Burrows, South Stradbroke Island, Queensland)
These Caterpillars are pale yellowish-green and knobbly, although the colour appears to vary according to the colour of the food being eaten. They feed on the flowers and shoots of various plants including various plants from PRIMULACEAE :
as well as
The caterpillars are often attended by ants. The caterpillars grow to a length of about 1 cm.
The pupa is brown with dark spots. It has a length of about 1 cm. It is formed in some sheltered crevice or curled dead leaf.
The adult male butterflies are purple on top, but the females are white with a blue sheen and a broad black costa and margin.
Both sexes of the adult butterfliy have a thin tail at the tornus of each hind wing. Underneath, both sexes are pale grey, with a white patch under each wing, and multiple arcs of white dashes, and with a black spot beside each tail. The butterflies have a wing span of about 2.5 cms.
The eggs are laid in ones or twos on young shoots or flowers of a foodplant. The eggs are white, rough, round, and flattened, with a diameter of abour 0.5 mm.
The species occurs as many races across south-east Asia, including
and in Australia as two races
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 784-786.
Todd Burrows,
Life History notes on the White-banded Line-blue
Nacaduba kurava (Moore, 1858) Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae,
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 59 (December 2010), pp 20-22.
Frederic Moore,
Papiliones,
in Horsfield & Moore:
A Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Company,
Volume 1 (1858), p. 22, No. 10.
Frederic Moore,
Lycaenidae,
Lepidoptera of Ceylon,
Volume 1 (1880), p. 89.
C.E. Meyer,
Notes on the Life History of
Nacaduba kurava felsina Waterhouse and Lyell
(Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae),
The Australian Entomologist,
Volume 23, Part 2 (September 1996), pp. 73-74.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 24 November 2010, 14 August 2024)