Monday, December 1, 2014

Dingy Lineblue (Petrelaea dana)

Dingy Lineblue is rather rare butterfly flies from lowlands to about 500 m a.s.l elevations. Males often settle on damp patches of the roads or stream beds. Hitherto no records available on its early stages of life cycle or on larval host plants in published materials on Sri Lankan butterfly fauna. Recently egg laying and larva feeding on Terminalia catappa (කොට්ටම්බා) flowers were observed by Sujeewa Gunasena (Sujeeva Gunasena ‎ Personal communication, October 28, 2014 &  https://www.facebook.com/kamanijeeva/media_set?set=a.811498772250436.1073741853.100001709620688&type=1&pnref=story)

* Terminalia arjuna (කුඹුක්) is also known as one of its larval host plant.