Lime blue
Chilades lajus
The lime blue is a small butterfly. The male is bluish purple on top, and the female is dark brown with shiny blue near her body. Underneath, its wings are grey with lots of little spots.
Lives in
India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Taiwan, Hong Kong and islands of Southeast Asia
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups drink from flowers. The caterpillars eat young leaves of lime and pomelo bushes.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Lime blue about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its caterpillar is pale green and looks a bit like a tiny woodlouse.
2
Ants look after its caterpillars, and seeing the ants is how you can find them.
3
In the dry season it is paler than in the rainy season.
4
Its chrysalis is green and hangs under a leaf.
you asked
Most asked questions about Lime blue
?What does the lime blue eat?
Its caterpillars eat young leaves of lime and pomelo bushes.
?Why do ants visit the lime blue caterpillar?
The ants look after the caterpillar, and that helps people spot it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chilades lajus
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Chilades lajus (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 Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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