Very Small Blue Butterflies, Manchester UK (1 Viewer)

J

Jonny721

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2011

• #1

Me and a couple of friends were at Pennington Flash today and whilst walking along the edge of a hill we spotted several of these tiny blue butterflies. There were lots of Common Blue's in the area however these were probably half the size which was very noticable in flight, they looked like micro moths! Also as can be seen on the underside photos they have a long horizontal black patch on the underwing which i can't find on any Common Blue photos. Picture 1-4 is one of them and pic 5 is another, I've edited pics 4 and 5 to show the pattern better. Common Blue is the only thing I can come up with but if they were then they aren't like any I've seen before! Any help appreciated.



Cheers Jonny

 

jackied

Jax

• Sep 10, 2011

• #2

sounds like it could be a Brown Argus. Brown Argus is smaller than Common Blue and has a thiner silver edge. But some others may have more ID tips than me, as i'm no expert.
jackie

 

Cristian Mihai

Cristian Mihai

• Sep 10, 2011

• #3

The pattern on the underside of the forewing looks odd...

 

J

Jonny721

Well-known member

• Sep 10, 2011

• #4

Cristian Mihai said:

The pattern on the underside of the forewing looks odd...

Click to expand...

That was one of the main things that confused us. Ther were definately two seperate variations flying around. The normal Common Blues and then these which as I said earlier were about half the size and had a different pattern.

 

hjalava

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2011

• #5

Polyommatus icarus, which often remains small in this generation. Maybe they missed a larval stage.

 

J

Jonny721

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2011

• #6

Well Common Blue was the only thing it could have been really so thanks everyone :t: but has anyone ever seen this pattern of markings before on the species?

 

hjalava

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2011

• #7

Similar patterns found here: http://www.perhostutkijainseura.fi/historia/lycaenidae2/pol-icarus.htm
if you look at the II gen. specimens.

 

J

Jonny721

Well-known member

• Sep 11, 2011

• #8

Cheers Harri :t:

 

tjsimonsen

Well-known member

• Sep 14, 2011

• #9

It's been a rather poor summer butterfly wise, perhaps it didn't feed optimally as larva. That often results in smaller adults.

Thomas

 

J

Jonny721

Well-known member

• Sep 16, 2011

• #10

Thanks for that Thomas. Just slightly disappointed that we won't be announcing the discovery of the Pennington Blue anytime soon

 

CerambyX

Well-known member

• Sep 18, 2011

• #11

I saw male icarus with similar front-wing underside markings last year in Latvia. It also left me puzzling for a while. Last summer was one of hottest in recent years and many butterflies and moths had unusual 2nd (and maybe even 3rd) broods on wing so maybe there is some connection to that. Don't remember it being smaller than usual though.

 

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Last edited: Sep 18, 2011