John&Jacq~s Garden

Chilades pandava (Cycad Blue Butterfly), the diminutive beauty

Chilades pandava pandava (Cycad Blue Butterfly, Plains Cupid)

This species of blue butterflies are really very tiny and diminutive. You have to get real close and have good eyesight to enjoy its beauty.

Thank God that we live in the digital age, where a simple point and shoot digital camera can work wonders to bring out the awesomeness of nature on computers, the beautiful details not possible to enjoy with our naked eye…hehe, especially for retirees with failing eyesight like us. ;)

Just love watching these Cycad Blue butterflies that are seen daily in a group of 3-6, in our garden, fluttering about or seemingly chasing each other almost incessantly…a marvel in our sight! Unlike, the larger species of butterflies that are so aware of humans and take flight the second we draw close!

They’re usually up and about on bright sunny days, from around 10 am where our front yard which faces southeast gets the morning sun till early evening.

Dancing around or nectar-feeding for hours on end on the colourful flowers of low-growing plants like the Cuphea hyssopifolia (False Heather), Torenia fournieri (Bluewings) and Gomphrena globosa (Bachelor’s Buttons) that attract them so.

Chilades pandava is a tiny weenie pretty butterfly with an average wingspan of about 1.5-2 cm, and definitely not wider than 3 cm. The base colour at the underside is greyish brown with white and darkish-brown markings that are beautifully patterned. The hind wings have some small black spots encircled in white, with 2 larger black spots that are inwardly crowned with orangy-yellow on the lower end and each hind wing has a short white-tipped tail.

The upperside, on the other hand, is softly toned lavender-blue, hence aptly given one of its common name, the Cycad Blue Butterfly. Anyway, my description of its beauty is so inadequate…let the photos do the talking or get a more detailed description of Chilades pandava’s appearance at Wikipedia.

Cycas species are the Cycad Blue Butterfly’s host plants. Its pale green-colored eggs are laid singly on newly emerging fronds that are circinately coiled. The early instar larvae are coloured purple but subsequently change to green in later stages. The caterpillars feed on tender emerging shoots of Cycad palms that have not yet hardened, thus destroying the potential beauty of these slow-growing ornamentals. Hence, in certain regions, Chilades pandava are reckoned as pests!

Sharing some butterfly information as follows:

Taxonomy:

• Scientific name: Chilades pandava pandava (syn.: Edales pandava, Catochrysops/Euchrysops pandava)
• Common name: Cycad Blue Butterfly, Plains Cupid
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Class: Insecta
• Order: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
• Family: Lycaenidae
• Subfamily: Lycaeninae
• Genus: Chilades
• Species: C. pandava pandava

Distribution range: India, Sri Lanka and Mauritius to Myanmar, Thailand and the Sundaland.

Habitat: Forest fringe, secondary growth and gardens.

Food plants: Caterpillars feed mainly on the emerging leaves of ornamental Cycas species, such as, Cycas revoluta (Sago Palm), Cycas rumphii, Cycas micronesica (Fadang) and Cycas sphaerica, etc. Larvae are attended to by ants that protect them from parasites and predators, while at the same time feeding on the sugary liquid exuded from the caterpillars’ backs.

Last edit: June 2, 2016

Tags: butterflies/moths, our garden