''Ogyris ianthis'', commonly known as the golden azure or Sydney azure, is a butterfly 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 an uncommon species found in localised areas around Sydney and northern New South Wales and into southern Queensland. It inhabits dry sclerophyll forest and open woodland on sandstone soils. Both males and females have a

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 ...

of around 33 mm. The male above is pale blue with black margins, and pale brown on the underside. The female is golden orange with blackish margins on the upperside and more brownish on the underside. The larvae feed upon various species in the mistletoe family, including ''

Amyema miquelii ''Amyema miquelii'', also known as box mistletoe, is a species of flowering plant, an epiphytic hemiparasitic plant of the family Loranthaceae, found attached to several species of Australian eucalypt and occasionally on some species of Acacia. ...

'', '' A. linophylla'', '' A. quandang'', ''

Dendrophthoe glabrescens ''Dendrophthoe glabrescens'', commonly known as orange mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic plant of the mistletoe family Loranthaceae, found in eastern and northern Australia. It flowers from October to January. The flowers are tubular, with a green ba ...

'', '' D. vitellina'' and ''

Muellerina eucalyptoides ''Muellerina eucalyptoides'', commonly known as creeping mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic aerial shrub in the family Loranthaceae. The species is endemic to Australia. Taxonomy '' Muellerina'' is a member of Santalales, the mistletoe order, pla ...

''. As with many Lycaenidae, sugar ants attend the larvae, in this case the species '' Froggatella kirbii''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13486634 Arhopalini Butterflies of Australia Butterflies described in 1900