Common Pencil-Blue (on Blackbean)

Common Pencil-blue

(Candalides absimilis)

Also known as the Pencilled Blue, the Common Pencil-blue is found along the east coast of Australia, including Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria, usually on the edges of rainforest and gallery forest as well as coastal eucalypt open-forest and suburban gardens in Brisbane and Sydney where larval food plants are established. Has rapid flight, especially the males.

Host Plant:

Black Bean Tree, (Castanospermum australe), or Moreton Bay Chestnut, a large evergreen tree that grows to 40 metres, but usually is much smalller. It is found in Queensland and New South Wales.

Learn more about the Common Pencil-blue in the book entitled Create More Butterflies by Frank Jordan & Helen Schwencke which is available from Earthling Enterprises