Other Common Names

Small Brown Azure, Western Dark Azure

Synonyms

This species was split from Ogyris otanes in 2023; prior to that its subspecies were classified as Ogyris otanes arcana and Ogyris otanes sublustris.

Notes

I’d been hoping to take a lot of photos of this species, as I’d been provided with the locations for several colonies. However Oct/Nov 2016 was a poor season for butterflies in WA, and the two days I was in the right areas for Ogyris arcana were very windy, so there were very few butterflies on the wing.
All my photos of this species were adults feeding on flowers; they seemed to prefer flowers in exposed positions, making photography very difficult as it was almost impossible to keep the butterfly in focus.

The following year I had a bit more luck – it wasn’t quite as windy and there were a few more of these Azures to be seen. As well as sublustris, the subspecies found to the north of Perth, my mate Derek and I also came across arcana in the Stirling Ranges, which was very fortunate given that it was a very cool and heavily overcast day.

Sightings

Cervantes, Dongara and Leeman – November 2016
Dongara, Leeman and Stirling Ranges – November 2017

Links

• Systematic revision of the Ogyris idmo species group
• Tobias Westmeier’s website
• iNaturalist