Common ciliate blue
The common ciliate blue is a small butterfly from India and Southeast Asia. The male is dull purple with a blue glow near his body, and the female is brown with a pale violet blue shine. Underneath, its wings are purplish brown and soft and shiny like satin.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillar has bodyguards: big red and green weaver ants look after it. These ants build huge nests by gluing living leaves together in the trees.
The caterpillar is usually dark green and shiny, but some are pale green and some are reddish brown.
The caterpillar has a very small head that it can pull back into its body.
Its chrysalis is only about 10 millimetres long and pale with a diamond-shaped mark.
It lives on many islands too, like the Andaman Islands, Sumatra, Java and Borneo.
Most asked questions about Common ciliate blue
?What does the common ciliate blue caterpillar eat?
Leaves of many trees and bushes, like mango and litchi.
?Do ants really look after the caterpillar?
Weaver ants stay close to the caterpillar and look after it. Scientists who watched it saw the ants always nearby.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Anthene emolus
- Named by
- Godart, 1823
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Ciliate blue
Where the facts come from
- Anthene emolus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Haneesh K M.. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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