Catochrysops panormus (C. Felder, 1860)
Pale Pea-blue
 (previously known as Lycaena panormus)
POLYOMMATINI,   POLYOMMATINAE,   LYCAENIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Catochrysops panormus
early instar
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

This Caterpillar is yellowish green, with a darker dorsal line edged in white. It has been found feeding on various plants from the family FABACEAE including :

  • Rattle-Box ( Crotalaria alata, FABACEAE ),

    as well as

  • Yellow Knicker Bean ( Caesalpinia major, CAESALPINIACEAE ), and
  • Siris ( Albizia lebbeck, MIMOSACEAE ).

    Catochrysops panormus
    later instar
    (Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

    The shoots of the foodplant become very deformed where the caterpillar has been feeding.

    Catochrysops panormus
    deformed foodplant
    (Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

    The pupa is mottled brown with a length of about 0.8 cm.

    Catochrysops panormus
    Male
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

    The male adults are pale blue on top, with a black spot and a tail at the tornus of each hind wing.

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

    The females are brown with a shiny blue patch on each wing. They also have a black spot and tail at the tornus of each hindwing, and arcs of pale carets along the hindwing margins.

    Catochrysops panormus
    Male: underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

    Underneath, they are fawn with irregular dark arcs edged in white. The hindwings each have one large and one small black spot edged in orange by the tornus. The butterflies have a wing span of about 2.5 cms.

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

    The eggs are egg-shaped and pale green. They are laid singly on or inside flower-buds of a foodplant.

    Catochrysops panormus
    egg, magnified
    (Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

    The butterflies are similar in colour to those of Catochrysops amasea, but have more angular wings.

    Catochrysops panormus
    mating pair
    (Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

    The species occurs as various races from across Asia, including

  • Borneo,
  • India,
  • Philippines,
  • Taiwan,
  • Thailand,

    and the race platissa (Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) occurs in Australia in

  • Queensland, and
  • northern New South Wales.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 828-829.

    Baron Cajetan von Felder,
    Lepidopterorum Amboienensium species novae diagnosibus,
    Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe,
    Volume 40, Series 11 (1860), p. 455, No. 27.

    Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer,
    Neue Schmetterlinge aus dem "Museum Godeffroy" in Hamburg,
    Stettin Entomologische Zeitung,
    Volume 30, Parts 1-3 (1869), p. 74, No. 31, and also Plate 4, fig. 20.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 222.

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    (updated 24 May 2011, 23 December 2023)