12909_male_Ain_14Jul08

12913_male_Ain_14Jul08

This is a beautifully marked butterfly. The male upperside is bright blue with the typical Maculinea black forewing splash marks. The underside is typical Maculinea, but with a very clean ground colour and neat black marks. It  is nearly always found perched on its larval hostplant Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis), or very close by. I've only ever seen one, and it was in a field of S. officinalis, which is a plant of marshy terrain, so it is quite difficult to get close enough to photograph and I was very fortunate that 12909, which is the only telejus I have seen, came close enough to the boardwalk through the marsh that I could get a half-decent photo of this beautifully fresh specimen.

In the Lafranchis ID book, it says that the telejus post-discal forewing spot in s2 (the lowest large spot just visible on the unf), is equidistant from the discal spot and the submarginal spot; this is certainly true for 12909.

In the new European taxonomy, this species now has the scientific name Phengaris teleius.

observations

a male, I'm reasonably confident, because I saw it in flight and it looked a very bright blue.

the same butterfly as 12909. Worth two shots!