Coeliccia sp becomes blue*

*This entry was adjusted early 2017 and again on January 2, 2020. The species in this article is a sibling species of C. kazukoae, published in Kosterin & Kompier (2017) in Zootaxa as C. rolandorum.

My earlier visit to Cat Tien (see entry from August) had turned up quite a few Coeliccia sp., some of which looked pretty much mature and were still yellow and brown, but during our November visit to Cat Tien it turned out that they had still been immature. Now, in the much drier forest I ran into quite a few adult males and a few females, hanging from the tips of leaves along small streams. And they were invariably blueish (apart from a few immature ones inside the forest that in hand had identical features). Here a few shots of the adult, which apparently takes quite a while to attain full colours.

Male of Coeliccia rolandorum, note also the colour of the eyes.

And the female, a little whitish under the flash, a necessary evil in these dark places

A different male, note the longer greenish-blue line over the humeral suture in this individual.

Close-up of thorax pattern and eyes.

Close up of the appendages.