100 More species #82: Eastern tailed blue

[urbpan]

Eastern tailed blue Cupido comyntas

We tend to think of butterflies as fairly large insects, with creatures like monarchs and tiger swallowtails big enough to fill an open palm. The blues are a group of relatively tiny butterflies, each wing only spanning a half an inch or so. Their low flight and small size might make you mistake them for a moth, but the pale metallic blue of the upper wing surface is unmistakeable. Like little fairies of the suburbs they flit along the top surfaces of the yards looking for low growing legumes like white clover. Their caterpillars feed only on legumes including weeds like vetch and black medick. White clover has the added advantage of providing the adults with small shallow flowers that accomodate their short probosces.

I didn't think I had a prayer of identifying this one to species, but I took two photos--one good and one useful. The one not shown here revealed the important field marking: a little projection off back of the wing that gives the species its name. This also happens to be the most common blue in the Northeast, and can be seen in backyards and other habitats from Canada to Costa Rica.

EDITED TO ADD: You know what? I can see the tails in this picture.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This is a pretty photo. Eastern tailed blue, you say. Cool. I like these little blue butterflies. I see them around from time to time. They always remind me of some silly English text on a jar of instant coffee Wakanomori bought when we lived over there--it talked about a chainsaw breaking the tranquil silence of the morning and blue butterflies being whipped by the morning breeze.

Yeah.