Sahulana scintillata (Glistening Line-blue)

Other Common Names

Glistening Blue

Notes

I bumped into this species on the Terrace Garden in the Mount Annan Botanic Garden. It was quite fortunate, because apparently this butterfly tends to settle quite high up on trees, out of camera range. But on the terrace garden, the higher parts of some of the shrubs were within reach from the next tier up on the terrace, and that was how I was first able to get close enough to get some photos.

There were at least 4 of these butterflies in a small area – they were continually competing for perches, with each other and with a Prosotas felderi that had taken a liking to a particular shrub. At first this was frustrating, as they didn’t sit still long enough for me to get any decent pictures. But whenever they were disturbed, they would come back to almost the same spot, and they also seemed to be much more worried about each other than about me, so after a while I was able to get some quite nice shots of them.

The following year I saw one of these butterflies in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney. I spotted it zipping around a small citrus bush, and eventually it landed. I was able to get one decent picture before inadvertently disturbing it.

I’ve come across more of these butterflies from time to time. The Mount Annan site is still probably the most reliable, in the autumn months, though in more recent years I’ve also had some luck finding scintillata at near the Coalcliff end of the Wodi Wodi walking track.

Sightings

Mount Annan Botanic Garden – April 2005, April 2010, May 2011, April 2013, May 2019
Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney – May 2006
Knapsack Park, Glenbrook – February 2010
Coalcliff – January 2019

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