Butterfly of the Day!

Lycaenidae (gossamer-wings): The gossamer-wing butterflies are characteristically small butterflies. All the subfamilies have similar looking species making for difficult field identification. Except for their sharing a blue color, the blue butterflies are among the most difficult to identify. Other member of the Lycaenidae family are the coppers, hairstreaks and elfins

.


This is a very common species across the United States. Most accounts of the Spring Azure start with the fact that it is one of the first spring butterflies.There is a superficial chevron mark on each wing that sits below a pattern of small dark spots

Colorful they are...

yeh
I think I have similar ones at my home in a glass case with needles stuck through them.
Very colourful

The Western Tailed-blue (Cupido amyntula) is a failry common resident of the Western States. The Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas) is one of the most widespread blue butterflies in the United States. Abundant throughout the East, a small population also lives in California, Oregon and Washington State.

Identifying a Tailed-blue butterfly is fairly easy. Both species share the characteristic of small tails (hair-like protrusions) on the bottom of their wings, a physical trail they share with the hairstreaks.

Because both species look very similar, differentiating between the Eastern and Western species in the West is problematic at best.

The Reakirt's Blue Butterfly is a very common butterfly, inhabiting grasslands, riparian areas and desert regions of the Midwest, south through Texas, and the lower Rocky Mountain states. Like other blue butterflies, you can often see them puddling along wet terrain on sunny days.

Physical similarities among species of the Euphilotes genus of blue butterflies means identification problems abound.

Generally the genus divides along Square-Spotted Blue and Dotted Blue groups, often called complexes, because even within groups, slight physical differences are discernible in different geographical regions.

Generally the square-spotted blues are identified by the presence of a connected band of orange on the underside of the hind wing, while the orange band on the dotted blues is disconnected.

they look like a day dwelling moth species
awesome,
daywalkers
flyers

The distinct gray and whitepattern with balck spots on the underside of the wings on the Arrowhead Blue makes it practically impossible to misidentify the species, providing you can find one.

Their range extends throughout higher elevation areas of the Western United States.

Silvery blues (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) are small, iridescent blue butterflies found in North America and Canada. Their wingspan is only 7/8-inch to 1-1/4-inch wide and they are found in a wide range of habitats, from coastal dunes to prairies. While the species as a whole is plentiful, one subspecies (palosverdesensis) is critically endangered, with a rank of T1 by the Nature Conservancy (critically imperiled globally because of extreme rarity), and another (xerces) is thought to be extinct.

Surely you must be running out of blue ones.

Not quite, this is about half of them that I've found.

The Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus) is the sole representative of the Hemiargus genus in the United States.

It's a fairly common southern species, found wherever, legumes, the larval host plant, grow. Its small size makes it easy to miss in the field.

The top of the wings are a solid blue color with a slight dark spot on the botttom of the hindwings.

Once thought extinct, the Fender's Blue butterfly was rediscovered in 1989, and in January 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed it as endangered, under the United States Endangered Species Act.

It is a prairie (grassland) resident, with populations in both upland and wet prairies of the Willamette Valley, OR.

Traditionally, these grasslands hosted a variety of native plants and wildlife, including the primary host plant for Fender's blue larvae, the Kincaid's lupine (also listed as endangered), and the adult food source, native nectar producing flowers.

The Cassius Blue (Leptotes cassius) is one of two Leptotes species found in the United States.

They are smaller than average blues with two brightly colored eye spots on the edge of the hind wing.

Their flight pattern is quick and erratic, which provides a good in flight field identification clue.

The Larvae feed on a variety of plants including members of the pea and leadwort families. Adults nectar on a variety of flowers.

The Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon), a small, West Coast butterfly, looks similar to the Lupine Blue.

Its range is more limited than the Lupine Blue, extending only along the West Cost, west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada.

In areas where the two species share overlapping territory, field identification can be difficult.

The iridescent marks encircling the black spots on top of the orange marks represent the best field identification marks.

With their wings folded, Acmon Blue butterflies are about the size of a dime, so getting a close-up view is the only way to properly identify one. (This is one tiny butterfly!)

Quote :

In areas where the two species share overlapping territory, field identification can be difficult.

is that because of the butterfly (day moth) inter breeding?
do butterflys cross species breed?

You know what, I actually don't know. It's possible I suppose. It is the pattern that throws them off which doesn't help when their territories overlap.

The Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machaon), is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the Common Yellow Swallowtail or, simply, The Swallowtail (a common name applied to all members of the family). It is the type species of the genus Papilio and occurs throughout the Palearctic region in Europe and Asia; it also occurs across North America, and thus, is not restricted to the Old World, despite the common name.