Common
Blue
2008 photos highlighted green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
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| 14369_male_Var_19Sep08 | 4802_male_Var_19Apr07 | 13682_male_Gard_22Aug08 |
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| 2479_male_Var_8Jul06 | 10707_female_Var_22May08 | 10533_female_Var_14May08 |
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| 2849_female_Var_21Jul06 | 13686_female_Gard_22Aug08 |
A very common and very widespread blue, perhaps the most common in Europe. It is quite variable and, from the underside alone, could easily be confused with several of its polyommatus cousins. The male upperside is fairly constant, although worn specimens can appear darker blue in flight. The male upperside black marginal line is usually thinner than Chapman's Blue (P. thersites). Females can vary greatly with regard to the amount of upperside blue scaling, varying from almost no blue to extensive blue, with almost anything in between. The female underside, being brown, is very similar to the Brown Argus (aricia agestis), the constant key being that the top three unh post-discal spots that make a right-angle (or maybe more of a curve) are in line and evenly spaced in icarus, but in agestis the second spot is closer to the first and displace downward - see below (icarus on the left, agestis on the right). If you can see enough of the unf, icarus has a cell spot and agestis doesn't, as shown here.
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The underside can vary considerably, with respect to the ground colour, where the male is usually grey but can the unh can sometimes be pale brown, and the orange lunules can vary greatly in terms of colour, and may be rounded or pointed. It's usually a case of eliminating other species, rather than positively identifying icarus from the underside alone. The Eros Blue (P. eros) has a very similar underside, but eros is confined to the higher reaches of the Alps and Pyrenees.
14369: a male. A common sight across Europe.
4802: a male, quite dark grey ground colour and light orange lunules. Altitude 220m.
13682: a male, with pale brown unh ground colour and strong elongated red lunules.
2479: the uns ground colour is very fresh and cleanly marked, although the unh is browner than usual for a male. The orange lunules are quite wide, forming an almost continuous band.
10707: this female is of the blue form, with extensive blue uph scaling but the full-ish set of unf lunules indicates icarus. It could be confused, early season, with the female of the first brood thersites (the second brood female is the more normal plain brown). The key differentiator (as it appears to me) seems to be that the upf orange lunules extend to the costa in icarus but only to about s3 or s4 in thersites.
10533: a typical female.
2849: a constant clean brown colour, with neat unh lunules, strongly black edged, and strong orange unf lunules in complete series.
13686: a rather darker brown ground colour, which may be more typical of later broods.
