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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
Butterflies of Malaysia and Borneo
 
Common Caerulean
Jamides celeno CRAMER, 1775
Family - LYCAENIDAE
subfamily - LYCAENINAE
Tribe - POLYOMMATINI
subtribe - POLYOMMATITI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Jamides celeno, Taman Negara, West Malaysia
 
Introduction
 
Members of the tribe Polyommatini are characterised by being small in size, and marked on the underside with a pattern of small spots or striations. The uppersides of males are in most species covered in metallic blue scales, while females are predominantly dull earthy brown in colouration.
 
The tribe has worldwide distribution and contains such familiar species as the Long-tailed Blue Lampides boeticus, Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus, African Tiger Blues Tarucus spp., and Oriental genera including Castalius, Zizeeria, Nacaduba and Jamides.
 
The genus Jamides contains about 30 species, all of which carry a distinctive underside pattern comprised of white or buff striations on a greyish-brown ground colour. All the species also bear an orange-edged black spot at the tornus, and a single thin tail. Males have bluish uppersides, which vary from pale silvery blue in celeno to vivid ultramarine, purple or turquoise in various other species. Females are similar to the males, but the apex and outer margins of their forewings are dark brown or black in most species.
 
Jamides celeno is the commonest and most widespread member of the genus, occurring in Sri Lanka, India, Assam, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Taiwan, the Philippines, Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea.
 
Habitats
 
This species breeds in disturbed evergreen and deciduous forest habitats at altitudes between sea level and about 1600m.
 
Lifecycle
 
The fully grown caterpillars are a dingy reddish-olive colour, and covered with minute white tubercles. They feed on the foliage of various plants including Trichilia, Pueraria and Saraca ( Leguminosae ), and are attended by ants of several species, which milk them to obtain a sugary secretion.
 
Adult behaviour

 

Both sexes are commonly seen flying around flowering bushes in forest-edge habitats including gardens, roadsides, railway cuttings and archaeological sites. They often rest on foliage at heights between about 1 - 3 metres, choosing bushes in dappled sunlight.

 

Males are frequently seen imbibing mineralised moisture from damp soil and leaf-litter on the forest floor. When feeding the head is always dipped. The pattern of white striations diverts the eyes of avian predators away from the real head, and towards the orange-rimmed back ocellus and "false-antennae" tails. Attacking birds aim their beaks towards the area in which they predict a butterfly will try to make it's escape, i.e. in front of the head. The markings on the wings fool them into aiming just behind the butterfly instead, and the insect makes it's escape in the opposite direction.

 
                                                        
In common with most other butterflies in Malaysia, Borneo and Palawan, the habitats of this species are severely endangered. Rainforest only remains on the steepest mountain-sides, and at a small number of nature reserves. Many of the reserves are now threatened with reclassification and subsequent exploitation at the hands of major international companies.
 
Tragically, the huge areas of tropical rainforest which once covered the lowlands of West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak have been almost entirely cleared, with only a few "islands" of original forest remaining, surrounded by vast oil palm plantations.
 
The forests of Kalimantan ( the Indonesian sector of Borneo ) have suffered a similar fate, and what little remains is now under severe threat,
as the protected status of nature reserves is being revoked to make way for concession areas that will be subjected to open cast coal mines, logging, and clearance for immense oil palm plantations to satisfy the demand for bio-diesel fuel.
 
The extent of the devastation is immense, and the consequences catastrophic, not only for butterflies, but also for orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and myriads of other mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects - our natural heritage is being annihilated.
 
You can help prevent further devastation - please lobby your governments, and contact the rainforest conservation organisations who organise on-line petitions and use scientific evidence to apply pressure to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia to halt the devastation.
 
 
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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