SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

Hypochrysops ignitus ignitus (Leach)   (Fiery Jewel)

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The small, spindly green plant in the centre foreground is a young broad-leaved
Acacia pycnantha, which has a colony of the Fiery Jewel living on it.
The brown leaves are where the larvae have eaten and caused the leaves
to die and turn brown.  There is an ant byre at the base of the plant

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Closeup of the ant byre at the base of the above plant

Numerous Papyrius ants attending a group of night feeding larvae on Acacia leiophylla

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Immature larva being attended to by Papyrius ants.
Ants are 4 mm long

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Mature larvae, head on the right

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Mature larvae which have been feeding on leaves of a broad leaved Acacia.
They have eaten the cuticle off the leaf surface causing the sub-cuticle area to die and turn brown

Photography by R. Grund