ICommon Blue > Polyommatus icarus

Description: Wingspan 2.7 - 3.4cm. Upperside of male light blue with a violet tinge and a white fringe to the wing edges. Female (pictured top left) is more brown, sometimes quite heavily overlaid with blue, with a row of orange spots along the outer wing-margins. Underside light grey in male, light brown in female (pictured bottom left), with a vivid pattern of dots in both sexes. Found throughout the UK, in dry and wet meadows and open, hilly countryside. Flight period is early April to mid-October, with two or three broods. Feeds at many flowers, but also at damp patches on the ground; at night rests head down on grass stems. Female lays eggs singly on the buds or flowers of the caterpillar's food plants. The caterpillar is pale green and woodlouse-shaped, with thin yellowish side stripes and short hairs. Feeds especially on Bird's-foot Trefoil, but also on Lucerne, medicks, restharrows and other plants; frequently visited by ants which feed on secretions produced by glands at the hind end and protect it from enemies. Chrysalis smooth, shining olive-brown, on the ground below the food plant. Hibernates as a half-grown caterpillar. Return to ButterfliesSPACEReturn to main index