Adonis blue

L. bellargus Rott. (81 h). Of the size of icarus but the male above of a very light and glittering sky-blue: the female dark brown, with a red submarginal band and on the forewing a black discocellular spot. The underside bears some resemblance to that of coridon, as the rings of the ocelli are large and contrast conspicuously with the brown ground, which is especially dark in the female. Central and Southern Europe, as well as Anterior Asia as far as Kurdistan. — Of aberrations in the upperside we mention first the very light blue and very strongly glossy ab. adonis Hbn. The opposite development is found in ab. pallida Tutt which is duller and more lilac than ordinary bellargus. ab. suffusa Tutt (= czekelii Aign.) has the suffused blue shaded with plumbeous, which lessens the brilliancy of the colour, ab. ceronus Esp. are females whose upperside is strongly dusted with blue. — polonus Z. (81 c) [Lysandra × polonus (Zeller, 1845)] is found only in certain districts East Prussia, Russia, Syria and Spain; the light blue colour is shaded with silvery, the black border is somewhat broader and the hindwing bears dark dots at the outer margin. — females with the red submarginal band of the upperside very broad are ab. latefasciata Schultz — In Algeria flies a form which has a magnificent glossy blue upperside, is usually somewhat larger than Central European specimens and has distinct black spots before the distal margin of the hindwing above; this is punctifera Oberth. (81 c) [now a full species]. Also in Europe occur occasionally specimens with traces of some submarginal dots on the hindwing above, without the other characters of punctifera; Aigner-Abafi named this form ab. parvipuncta. If such dots are present on the forewing, we have ab. puncta Tutt. The ocelli of the underside may either be so enlarged that some become confluent (confluens Aign., striata Tutt), or they may become obsolete: ab. krodeli Gillm. (= cinnides Stgr., adonis Hbn. pt.) (81 c). The specimens in which only the usually present basal ocelli of the forewing are absent are ab. sapphirus Meig. — Egg semiglobular, with the top somewhat impressed, pale green, reticulated with white. Larva bright leaf-green, with dark dorsal stripe accompanied by small orange yellow spots, which form two subdorsal lines; similar yellow stripes on the sides; head black. Until April and again in the summer on Hippocrepis and Coronilla. Pupa green or brown, with a dark stripe on the back, on or close to the ground. The butterflies are on the wing in May and June and again in August, in the South a third time in September and October. They love open places, fallow ground, young plantations and sunny slopes; they rest in day-time with open wings and sleep on Umbels, Thistles, and Scabious, also on stalks of grass, keeping the wings tightly closed. When disturbed they fall with a jump into the grass. They are common at their flight-places in most districts and occur in mountains up to 2,100 metres (7,000 ft).[2]

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  Male (wing topside)
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  Male (wing underside)
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  Female (blue colouration)
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  Female (green colouration)
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  Female
  aberration obsoleta
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  Courting pair