Jalmenus ictinus

4 Stencilled Hairstreak at Mount Ainslie

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Identification history

	Jalmenus ictinus	29 Dec 2023	owenh
	Jalmenus ictinus	29 Dec 2023	g4vpmuk

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5 comments

owenh wrote:

29 Dec 2023

Confirming species only - interested to know why you suggest female. Associated plant looks like St. John's Wort.

g4vpmuk wrote:

29 Dec 2023

I’ll take your word for it re the flower. When it opened its wings there were blue patches on the uppersides which I believe indicates a female.

owenh wrote:

29 Dec 2023

Thanks g4vpmuk, you are correct, females of this species can usually show irridescent blue central areas on the upperside but colouration is variable. Due to this variation best we refer to Michael Braby who notes 'In the male, the central area is usually bluish-green, but in some specimens is bright blue or green; in the female it varies from green, through bluish-green, blue, purplish-blue to purple' (Butterflies of Australia, Vol 2. CSIRO Publishing 2000). As such, suggest that unless we can observe specific behaviour difficult to determine sex in the field. Thank you for your record.

g4vpmuk wrote:

29 Dec 2023

No problem. The coloured patches were actually a bluish-purple.

HelenCross wrote:

29 Dec 2023

Glad you were able to see your 30th butterfly species while in Australia!

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