Chliaria othona

Chliaria othona, the orchid tit, is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly found in Asia.

The orchid tit is one of the rare butterflies belonging to the family Lycaenidae (Kehimkar, 2008). This butterfly is fairly common in northern India, but was reported to be very rare in southern India. In India, Chliaria othona is distributed in the Western Ghats, Uttaranchal to Arunachal Pradesh, the northeast, West Bengal and the Andaman Islands. It was also reported from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The species prefers wet forests of up to 1524 meters altitude from the mean sea level and occasionally visits damp patches for mud-puddling. The caterpillars of orchid tit feed on the flower buds and flowers of orchids, hence the name.