Spring Azures Mating

Every spring tiny, delicate blue butterflies known as Spring Azures (Celastrina ladon) are one of the first butterflies one sees.  Your impression of this butterfly depends on the angle from which you view it.  From above, the wings are a bright, pale blue (females’ have a dark border).  From beneath, the wings are very pale and lightly marked with brown speckling.  Thus, at rest or mating (as pictured) with wings folded vertically, they are not as startling to the eye as when they are seen flying.

After spending the winter as pupa, encased within a chrysalis, the adult emerges, mates and the females lay eggs.  The larva, or caterpillar, is slug-shaped, and is tended by ants which stimulate it to excrete a clear greenish “honeydew” which they consume.  (It is thought that the ants discourage parasitism by wasps and flies.)

At one time all North American azures were considered to be one species but now they have been identified as several different, but very similar, species collectively referred to as the “Spring Azure complex.”

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