Karkloof Blue

The Karkloof Blue butterfly, Orachrysops ariadne (Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae) was discovered in 1897, in the Karkloof district of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. It is still found there, and has been adopted as the emblem of the Midlands Meander tourist route. It is a rare and localised insect; the only known and confirmed colonies are at Wahroonga and Stirling near Merrivale, The Start near Karkloof, and Nkandhla Forest. It used to be found near Michaelhouse School until 1945, and there are unconfirmed sightings from close to the Karkloof Canopy Tours locality.

The butterfly is on the wing in late summer - March to May, when the foodplant Indigofera woodii var. laxa is in flower and there are buds and young shoots for the young larvae to feed upon. The larvae shelter inside nests of the ant Camponotus natalensis. Adults frequent steep gullies with thick grass cover, where they circle up and down, looking for females sitting on flowers and dead stems. The male is a brighter blue than the female.