Notes

Other Common Names Southern Line-blue, Felder's Line-blue I first saw this butterfly sitting on top of a Hibiscus insularis bush in the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was out of range of my camera, but I found that if I shook the bush a bit, the butterfly would do a couple of circuits and land on another spot, always near the top and always in the sun. So I just kept on shaking until it settled in a spot close enough to be photographed. Although it's mostly brown, I suspect it's actually a male, but a rather worn specimen. The underside ground colour was definitely more grey-brown rather than the yellow-brown of the female. Early in June, I saw several individuals near the exit from the main carpark at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens. They were feeding from the flowers of a shrub called Chamelaucium uncinatum. Although the bush had flowers at various heights, they didn't seem to want to feed below about 2 metres from the ground, though I did see them land on the ground and on low-level plants to bask in the sun. In July I saw 4 or 5 individuals around a flowering shrub in the Royal Botanical Gardens, right next to the bush where I saw my first specimen in May. Sightings Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney - May, July 2004. Mount Annan Botanic Garden - June 2004; April, May 2005. Manly - March 2005 Ingleburn - April 2005 Glenbrook - March 2006