Unusual Marked Blue

[ChrissyMarie]

Going through loads of images that I have taken today, this one struck me as a little strange. At first I thought it was a female common blue but it is missing the white markings beneath the black and orange..


Any thoughts anyone?

[Lance Morgan]

It is a female common blue. there is a lot of variance in colour.

[clb100]

The upper side of a female common blue is brown. AFAIK the only female blue with a blue upper side is the Holly Blue but this is also blue on the underside.

I suspect it is a male common blue.

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by clb100

The upper side of a female common blue is brown. AFAIK the only female blue with a blue upper side is the Holly Blue but this is also blue on the underside.

I suspect it is a male common blue.

Lance is correct- it is a female Common Blue. Though normally brown above, blue females do occur + more common further north + west. Check one of the bettter butterfly guides + you should see the blue female illustrated.

[clb100]

aeshna5,

My mistake - I should have looked at the photo more carefully - the presence of the orange spots on the upper side means it must be a female.

[ChrissyMarie]

clb100, I smiled at your post because initially I thought it was a Holly Blue as well. I couldn't get a photo of the underwing but I did have a good look.

Whilst most of the female common blues in this area have some blue on the inner wings, this one is pretty unusual. I must have taken hundreds of common blue photo's last year and I haven't seen one before with this much blue and as big, it was more of a large male size As I said above, the white is usually more pronounced by the orange too. It would be interesting to post up a collage at the end of the year of all the variations.

Thanks everyone for your help, it is always good to increase the knowledge base

[basquesteve]

The blue colour is apparently caused with cooler and/or damper conditions during larval / pupa development they are also very common in central Europe

[basquesteve]

I photographed this female colour variant yesterday in the garden