Eirmocides margarita

Eirmocides margarita (Semper, [1879])
Trident Pencil-blue
(previously known as Candalides margarita)
CANDALIDINI, POLYOMMATINAE, LYCAENIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

Eirmocides margarita
(Photo: courtesy of Todd Burrows, South Stradbroke Island, Queensland)

These Caterpillars can be green or pink or brown, sometimes with brown dorsal markings. They have a prominent dorsal ridge and a hump at the thorax. They feed on the young shoots and flowers of various species of Mistletoe ( LORANTHACEAE ), for example :

Erect Mistletoe ( Amyema congener ),

Box Mistletoe ( Amyema miquelii ),

Common Mistletoe ( Amyema conspicua ),

Brush Mistletoe ( Amylotheca dictyophleba ),

Shiny-leaved Mistletoe ( Benthamina alyxifolia ),

Signal Mistletoe ( Decaisnina signata ),

Curved Mistletoe ( Dendrophthoe curvata ),

Long Flowered Mistletoe ( Dendrophthoe vitellina ), and

Coast Mistletoe ( Muellerina celastroides ).

They attended by the small black ants :

Technomyrmex sophiae ( DOLICHODERINAE ).

(Photo: courtesy of Todd Burrows, South Stradbroke Island, Queensland)

The pupa is smooth and brown with a white dorsal line, and has curled flanges on the abdomen. It is attached to a foodplant leaf by anal hooks and a girdle.

female
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The female butterflies of this species are black with a large white patch on each wing, and a faint metallic blue suffusion toward the base. The males are plain dull blue.

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

Underneath, both sexes are white with arcs of brown dashes and black dots. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 3 cms.

Female, underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The eggs are hemispherical with a flat projecting 'chimney' on top. The eggs are pale yellow, and the surface covered with a hexagonal network of white ribs. The eggs have a diameter of about 1 mm. They are laid singly on a leaf or stem of a foodplant.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Darwin, Northern Territory))

The species exists as the race gilberti Waterhouse, 1903, In

the north of Western Australia,

the Northern Territory, and

Queensland.

and margarita in

Queensland, and

New South Wales.

showing underside
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Lake MacDonald, Queensland)