''Candalides helenita'', the shining pencil-blue, is a species of

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

. It is found in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 30 mm. Adults males are blue with a narrow black margin around each wing. The females are dark brown with a white patch on each wing. The underside of both sexes is white with a few dark dots around the hindwing margins. The larvae have been recorded feeding on the young foliage of '' Arytera pauciflora'', ''

Glochidion ferdinandi ''Glochidion ferdinandi'', with common names that include cheese tree (see below), is a species of small to medium–sized trees, constituting part of the plant family Phyllanthaceae. They grow naturally across eastern Australia, from south–eas ...

'', ''

Cryptocarya hypospodia ''Cryptocarya'' is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Overview The genus inc ...

'' and ''

Brachychiton acerifolium ''Brachychiton acerifolius'' is a large tree of the family Malvaceae endemic to tropical and subtropical regions on the east coast of Australia. It is famous for the bright red bell-shaped flowers that often cover the whole tree when it is leaf ...

''. They are green to brown with a pale brown head. Pupation takes place in a brown pupa which is formed in a curled leaf at the bottom of the host plant.

Subspecies

*''Candalides helenita helenita'' (Cape York to Cairns) *''Candalides helenita dimorpha'' (Röber, 1886) (Waigeu, Misool, Jobi, West Irian to Papua)

References

Candalidini Butterflies described in 1879 Butterflies of Australia Butterflies of Indonesia Taxa named by Georg Semper {{Polyommatinae-stub