The Genoveva Azure or Southern Purple Azure (Ogyris genoveva) is a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 of the Lycaenidae

Lycaenidae

The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...

 family. It is found in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is about 50 mm. Adult males are metallic purple, while females are black with metallic azure and a cream patch near the tip of each forewing.

The larvae feed on the foliage of various Loranthaceae

Loranthaceae

Loranthaceae is a family of flowering plants, which has been universally recognized by taxonomists. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemi-parasites, all of them except three having the mistletoe habit...

 species, including Amyema

Amyema

Amyema is a genus of semi-parasitic shrubs which occur in Malesia and Australia.-Species:There are approximately 90 species including the following:* Amyema artensis Dan...

, Dendrophthoe

Dendrophthoe

Dendrophthoe is a genus of hemiparasitic shrubs found in Asia and Australia known as mistletoes. The genus was described by German naturalist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius in 1830....

and Muellerina species. They are flattened and brown with darker brown dots. The larvae live in the nest of Camponotus species. Pupation takes place inside this nest in a dark brown pupa of about 25 mm.

Subspecies

• Ogyris genoveva genoveva
• Ogyris genoveva duaringa Bethune-Baker, 1905 (Duaringa to Milmerran)
• Ogyris genoveva gela Waterhouse, 1941 (New South Wales)
• Ogyris genoveva araxes Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 (north-western Victoria)
• Ogyris genoveva genua Waterhouse, 1941 (South Australia (Mount Lofty))
• Ogyris genoveva splendida Tindale, 1923 (South Australia (Flinders Ranges))