Silver Studded Blue?

[vole-woman]

I'm always badgering you with photos of blue butterflies and asking if they're silver-studded, but I really think this time it is. Or is it?

[GuyF]

Yes, definitely a Silver-studded Blue showing the "silver studs" nicely, good find!
Guy

[vole-woman]

Hooray!!! I had no idea they were so small. Now I know, there's no way I'll mix them up with common blues.

[Johnny Redgate]

Great shot. Did you see it at Prees Heath?

[vole-woman]

I did. It was evening, so the butterflies were happy to sit still while I photographed them.

A friend of mine has an amazing photo of an ssb covered in ants.

[vole-woman]

Can I check some more IDs with you? I'm assuming these are all SSBs as they were together in a group: I'm also assuming that the brown is female and that the blue is male. But what's the one that seems to be blue and brown? Also the brown one doesn't look quite like the photos I've seen of SSBs. Advice gratefully received.

[GuyF]

Yes, all Silver-studs. The first is a female, but it seems to be an interesting aberration as the complete lack of orange is unusual. Checking the Cockayne database it looks very similar to ab. violascens here - Cockayne however the Silver-studded Blue is very variable, and I think that it can be tricky at times fitting a butterfly to a named aberration. Still, this is probably quite a rare find, I've never seen one like this, or any photos of similar butterflies either!
The second is a male, and the third is a female - the amount of blue varies in females, apparently females in some populations often have blue markings, whereas the populations near me seem to be quite strictly brown!
Guy

[vole-woman]

Ooh, how exciting! Thank you!