Holly blue

Holly blue
Male
Female
both Cumnor Hill, Oxford, England
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Celastrina
Species: C. argiolus
Binomial name
Celastrina argiolus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Papilio cleobis Sulzer, 1776
  • Papilio thersanon Bergstrasser, 1779
  • Papilio argyphontes Bergstrasser, 1779
  • Papilio argalus Bergstrasse, 1779
  • Papilio (Argus) marginatus Retzius, 1783
  • Lycaenopsis argiolus calidogenita Verity, 1919
  • Lycaenopsis argiolus britanna Verity, 1919

The holly blue (Celastrina argiolus)[1] is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to Eurasia and North America.

The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. In Europe, the first generation feeds mainly on the holly species Ilex aquifolium but the second generation uses a range of food plants.[2]

Taxonomy

This species was originally described as Papilio argiolus by Linnaeus in 1758, and refers to the examples flying in Europe. In their monograph on the Lycaenopsis group of polyommatine genera, Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, list 14 taxa as valid subspecies names, plus many further synonyms to which they accord lesser status. According to Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, these 14 subspecies are divided into four groups as follows:

The argiolus group

Palaearctic & North African

  • C. a. argiolus
  • C. a. bieneri
  • C. a. hypoleuca
=paraleuca Rober
  • C. a. mauretanica
=algirica Oberthur
The kollari group

South and South-East Asian

  • C. a. iynteana
=sikkima Moore
=victoria Swinhoe
=herophilus Fruhstorfer
=cition Fruhstorfer
=bothrinoides Chapman
=puspargiolus Chapman
=albocaeruloides Chapman
  • C. a. kollari
=kasmira Moore
=coelestina Kollar
=trita Swinhoe
The ladonides group

Far Eastern

  • C. a. caphis
=crimissa Fruhstorfer
  • C. a. ladonides
=levettii Butler
=sachalinensis Esaki
=heringi Kardakoff
  • C. a. sugurui
The ladon group

North and Central American

  • C. a. cinerea
=arizonensis Edwards
  • C. a. echo
  • C. a. gozora
  • C. a. ladon
=pseudargiolus Boisduval
=violacea Edwards
=neglectamajor Tutt
  • C. a. lucia
=neglecta Edwards
=marginata Edwards
=argentata Fletcher

Common names

In India, C. argiolus is known as the hill hedge blue.[3] In North America, the ladon group of subspecies are known as the spring azure.[4] Also the name echo blue is used for the C. a. echo western subspecies.[5]

Range

Found in North America, Central America, Eurasia. and South Asia, it occurs from Chitral in Pakistan to Kumaon in India.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Card for argiolus in LepIndex. Accessed 14 October 2006.
  2. ↑ Butterfly Conservation A-Z of butterflies
  3. 1 2 Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai, India: Bombay Natural History Society. pp. 221–226, ser no H21.24.
  4. ↑ Tveten, John & Gloria (1996). Butterflies of Houston & southeast Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0292781436.
  5. ↑ Powell & Hogue (1980). California Insects. California Natural History Guides. p. 240. ISBN 0520037820.
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