Acytolepis puspa (Common Hedge Blue)

Acytolepis puspa (Common Hedge Blue) newly emerged.

This is small butterfly predominantly white with series of black spots on its underwing. It belongs to Lycaenidae family. It is not very common in our campus. It can be seen on damp patches and around its host plant Peltophorum ptecocarpum (Copperpod tree). There are many Copperpod trees on both sides of main road. I have seen female laying eggs on such trees once near Canara Bank ATM (near H-6) and near H-8. We also found eggs on another Copperpod tree near Main Building. Female lay egg singly on tender shoot or very young leaves. Eggs is more or less round, bluish green in colour, it turns white on maturity. A caterpillar does not eat its egg shell. It is tiny and extremely camofludged. It exclusively eats tender leaves of plant. After reaching maturity caterpillar turns pinkish-red in colour. One of the caterpillar made pupa on upperside of leaf and the butterfly emerged was male.  

Basking Acytolepis puspa (Common Hedge Blue) Female.

Similar species is Tailess Malayan (Megisba thwaitesi), compare following photo for similarities and differences between Common Hedge Blue and Tailess Malayan. Tailess Malayan is seen while mud-puddling.

                                                                 

Egg of Acytolepis puspa

Pre-pupation	Pre-pupation

Pupa just before emergence 

   

Peltophorum ptecocarpum (Copperpod tree)

Acytolepis puspa (Common Hedge Blue) mudpuddling

Commander - Life Cycle

Please double-click on the picture for better quality. 

Lime Blue (Chilades laius)

Fresh Lime Blue 

Lime Blue female egg laying on Lime

Lime Blue (Chilades laius) belongs to Lycaenidae family. It is small butterfly, grayish in color. We were able to observe its life-cycle. As its name suggest its larval host plants includes Lime plants. We observed its larva on small lime tree in Medical garden. Larva was easy to detect even though it is well camouflaged. Ants constantly follow larva, so in order to find Lime Blue's larva just follow the trail of ants. On the same plant we were able to find many empty pupa. This plant had many curled leaves. Lime blue caterpillar took advantage of this to make the pupa. Pupa were well concealed inside curled leaves of plant. It seemed that ants were attaining pupa also. We saw two pupa made very near to each other on same curled leaf. Lime Blue is seemed to be common in immediate post mansoon months. Again they were mainly encountered around Hill side. 

Lime Blue pupa in secluded leaf of lime, held on palm 

Key to ID this butterfly is the "L"shaped dots on its hind wings. Sex are dissimilar, female has black outlines on UP, which are absent in male. Here is a video Describing association of ants with lime blue caterpillar on lime tree.

Quick Facts:
Common Name: Lime Blue
Scientific Name: Chilades laius
Wingspan: approx 25-20 mm
Status: Locally Common.

Contributors: Paresh Kale and Abhay Soman.

Caterpillar of Lime Blue (Chilades laius)

Lime Blue

Female	Male
Early stage Pupa	Early Stage Pupa
Pupa just before eclosion	Pupa Just before eclosion
A different specimen

Charaxes athamas (Common Nawab)

This butterfly belongs to the aristocracy of the butterfly world. It can be seen in our campus. It is not very easy to see this beauty  because of its strong flight and habit of basking high on tree tops. But it is attracted to rotten food (fish, crab etc) and come to damp patches. So if you are willing, you can allure it with rotten food. It will not only attract Common Nawab but also many more attractive butterflies viz. Tawny Rajah, Black Rajah, Gaudy Baron to name a few. I saw it sipping tree sap once in the campus.

Paresh Kale and I first encounterd Common Nawab quite unexpectedly. One weekend we were casually walking along Lake side road. We saw on Acacia sp. empty pupa. It was more or less rounded, stout, short, hanging by single attachment with no body band. Some red spots were visible just above the wing case and rounded 'dots' on head. It was about 3 feet from ground. We realise that we got something “unusual”. In our excitement we search plant meticulously (thanks to plants small height ~ 6 feet). To our great joy we found green caterpillar with yellowish green V- shaped bands on its body and four horns on its head. It was resting peacefuly on silken bed woven on upperside of leaves. Later we found out it was mature and it pupated within few days. Beautiful butterfly emerge around noon after 8 days of pupation.

After that we (Swapnil, Paresh and I) saw Common Nawab around the same spot frequently  at ~ 12 noon. We saw female lying an egg on upperside of a leaf. The egg was yellow in colour and rounded in shape. At a time as many as 4 caterpillar were seen on the plant. So it was really common after all in IITB campus. It was also seen egg lying in Nagala block. It is more frequently seen than Tawny Rajah and Black Rajah.

Contributors: Paresh Kale, Swapnil Lokhande and Abhay Soman.

Pupa of Common Nawab

N.B. We saw Nawab (which one?) saw laying egg on underside of a leaf of some Gulamohar type tree, near Staff canteen. But unfortunately we didn't get its life-cycle.

Egg of Common Nawab