Hypochrysops


Hypochrysops is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae first described by Cajetan Felder and Rudolf Felder in 1860. This particular genus is exclusive to the Australian area with only a few species straying into Papua New Guinea.

Food sources

The mistletoe plant is ambiguously claimed to be a food source for at least some species of Hypochrysops.
This might be so, but raises some questions because most Lycaenidae have parasitic or mutualistic, often highly specific, relationships with various species of ants, and ants have been reported to carry the eggs of the Apollo jewel butterfly into their colonies inside ant plants of the genus Myrmecodia. Myrmecodia species have certain superficial resemblances to "mistletoes", but are epiphytic, not markedly parasitic, and are not in any parasitic plant family; they are in fact in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. It seems likely that Hypochrysops apollo apollo at least, might feed exclusively on ant food and ant larvae.

Species