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Hawaiian Blue
Udara blackburni
Udara blackburni, the Koa butterfly, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae that is endemic to Hawaiʻi. It is also known as Blackburn's butterfly, Blackburn's bluet, Hawaiian blue or green Hawaiian blue.
The wingspan is 22–29 mm.
From the article Udara blackburni on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
These butterflies have a wingspan of about an inch. The upper sides of their wings are blue and they often perch with their wings folded which reveals the under sides of the wings which are green. The adults feed on flower nectar with their long coiled up proboscis. The caterpillars are primarily found feeding on the Koa tree but occasionally on ʻaʻaliʻi, olomea, and māmaki plants.
Wikipedia: “Description and biology”
Range & habitat
This species is endemic to Hawaiʻi and has been recorded on the islands of Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui, Molakaʻi, Lanaʻi, and Hawaiʻi Island. Of the main Hawaiian Islands, the only two that have no records of these butterflies are Niʻihau and Kahoʻolawe.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
In human culture
Native insects developed a lot of cultural meaning to Polynesians in the Hawaiian Islands.
Wikipedia: “Cultural significance”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Udara blackburni in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 122013.