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Silver-studded blue
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Silver-studded blue
The silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it its name. P. argus can be found across Europe and east across the Palearctic, but it is most often studied in the United Kingdom where the species has experienced a severe decline in population due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
P. argus engages in mutualism with ants that contribute to the butterflies' reproductive fitness by providing protection from predation and parasitism from the point of egg laying to their emergence as adults. P. argus adults emerge at the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight until the beginning of August.
The butterfly is adaptable to different habitats and is found in heathland, mossland, and calcareous grassland. Tending towards a sedentary lifestyle and typically flying less than 20 metres (66 ft) a day, P. argus maintains a small radius home range. Their habitats lend themselves well to both foraging and egg laying as the host plants are ubiquitous in all three environments they occupy.
Male P. argus have royal blue wings with a black border, white, wispy fringe, and metallic silver spots on the hindwings as well as spurs on their front legs. Females of this species are generally brown and more subdued in color, but also have the metallic spots on the hindwings. The undersides of the male and female butterflies are very similar. They are taupe in color, with rings of black spots along the edge of the wing.
The adult is much like Reverdin's blue, Plebejus argyrognomon, with a deep dark blue upper side and a broad black border. There are glittering scales on the underside of the hindwing. It differs from P. argyrognomon in several details that vary between individuals. On the upperside the blue gloss is deeper, darker, duller, with a slight violet tint and not so far extended to the margin. The margin is broader and looks blacker; the row of dark submarginal dots sometimes seen on the upperside of the hindwing is always in the black border in P. argus. On the underside, both sexes of P. argus nearly always have a strongly glittering blue-green dusting at the base of the wings, usually but not always absent from P. argyrognomon. P. argus is usually smaller than argyrognomon.
The caterpillar larva is very variable, usually light green with dark dorsal spots, sometimes grey or dark brown with pale spots. In early summer and autumn the larva feeds on plants such as Coronilla, Trifolium, Colutea, and Genista. The larva and pupa are associated with the ant Formica cinerea and live in its nests. The pupa is elongate, green with red dorsal line; abdomen above yellowish green. There are two broods in the south, with adults on the wing in May and again from July onwards, but there is only one brood in the north. They favour sandy soil, like the ant.
The caterpillar of P. argus is green with a dark stripe along the length of its body and can reach 1.3 centimeters in length.
P. argus is sexually dimorphic, as evidenced by the color of their wings. This acts as an important visual cue when searching for suitable mates. Species that have overlapping habitat distribution and are of similar color (according to the human eye) have distinct absorbance values within the UV range; the UV range colors are important for butterflies when recognizing members of their own species.
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Silver-studded blue
The silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it its name. P. argus can be found across Europe and east across the Palearctic, but it is most often studied in the United Kingdom where the species has experienced a severe decline in population due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
P. argus engages in mutualism with ants that contribute to the butterflies' reproductive fitness by providing protection from predation and parasitism from the point of egg laying to their emergence as adults. P. argus adults emerge at the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight until the beginning of August.
The butterfly is adaptable to different habitats and is found in heathland, mossland, and calcareous grassland. Tending towards a sedentary lifestyle and typically flying less than 20 metres (66 ft) a day, P. argus maintains a small radius home range. Their habitats lend themselves well to both foraging and egg laying as the host plants are ubiquitous in all three environments they occupy.
Male P. argus have royal blue wings with a black border, white, wispy fringe, and metallic silver spots on the hindwings as well as spurs on their front legs. Females of this species are generally brown and more subdued in color, but also have the metallic spots on the hindwings. The undersides of the male and female butterflies are very similar. They are taupe in color, with rings of black spots along the edge of the wing.
The adult is much like Reverdin's blue, Plebejus argyrognomon, with a deep dark blue upper side and a broad black border. There are glittering scales on the underside of the hindwing. It differs from P. argyrognomon in several details that vary between individuals. On the upperside the blue gloss is deeper, darker, duller, with a slight violet tint and not so far extended to the margin. The margin is broader and looks blacker; the row of dark submarginal dots sometimes seen on the upperside of the hindwing is always in the black border in P. argus. On the underside, both sexes of P. argus nearly always have a strongly glittering blue-green dusting at the base of the wings, usually but not always absent from P. argyrognomon. P. argus is usually smaller than argyrognomon.
The caterpillar larva is very variable, usually light green with dark dorsal spots, sometimes grey or dark brown with pale spots. In early summer and autumn the larva feeds on plants such as Coronilla, Trifolium, Colutea, and Genista. The larva and pupa are associated with the ant Formica cinerea and live in its nests. The pupa is elongate, green with red dorsal line; abdomen above yellowish green. There are two broods in the south, with adults on the wing in May and again from July onwards, but there is only one brood in the north. They favour sandy soil, like the ant.
The caterpillar of P. argus is green with a dark stripe along the length of its body and can reach 1.3 centimeters in length.
P. argus is sexually dimorphic, as evidenced by the color of their wings. This acts as an important visual cue when searching for suitable mates. Species that have overlapping habitat distribution and are of similar color (according to the human eye) have distinct absorbance values within the UV range; the UV range colors are important for butterflies when recognizing members of their own species.
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