Bug FAQLime Blue
Chilades lajus · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Lycaenidae
The Lime Blue butterfly is a small lycaenid, about seven-sixteenths of an inch long when fully grown.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Males show a bluish-purple upperside. The forewing base and half of the costa are pale blue, edged by a thin dark brown line, with brown cilia at the base and white outwardly.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults are about seven-sixteenths of an inch long.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is found on the undersides of leaves of its host plant.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
The caterpillars feed on Glycosmis arborea.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
The larva is plain-coloured with no distinctive markings. The pupa is green with obscure brownish spots in dorsal and lateral rows.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
It is common in Calcutta during the rainy season. It resembles the wet-season brood but has a paler upperside and a large brown patch on the underside of the hindwing.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It can be confused with the wet-season form of the same species, but the Lime Blue has a paler ground colour on the upperside.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Questions people ask
What does the Lime Blue butterfly look like?
Males have a bluish-purple upperside, pale blue on the forewing base, a thin dark brown edge, and a large brown patch on the underside of the hindwing.
Source: Wikipedia
How big is the Lime Blue?
It measures about seven-sixteenths of an inch when fully grown.
Source: Wikipedia
What does the caterpillar look like?
The larva is plain-coloured with no distinctive markings.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Lycaenidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilades_lajus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.