13 September 2018

Dark Grass Blue – Wadi Thee Ghazal

Whilst birding Wadi Thee Ghazal in the Taif area I came across a small number of Dark Grass Blue Zizeeria karsandraalso known as Asian Grass Blue. It is a small butterfly found in the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman as well as the Southern Mediterranean, in a broad band to India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia. They are abundant throughout the northern part of Saudi Arabia excepting the boarder are with Jordon but also occur in the mountians as far south as at least Taif. They are weak flyers keeping low and are not strong migrants. Colour and size varies probably depending on food source availability.