Blue-spot Hairstreak (Satyrium spini)

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2023 photographs highlighted in green. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

33693_male_Var_12Jul13 21114_female_Var_28Jun10 10799_female_Var_23May08 10804_female_Var_23May08
49409_female_Var_20Jun22 45179_sex?_Var_5Jun18 44463_sex?_Alpes-Maritimes_17Jul17 46451_sex?_Var_12Jul19

Quite reclusive and often sedentary, so can often be missed. Until 2006 I had seen only single individuals at altitude locations (around 1000m or more) in the Vercors National Park, at the Col de Vars and in the Alpes-Maritimes. However, in June 2006 I found fifty or more at a lowland location in Var and since then in good numbers at other locations. Probably this is because I had not visited lowland areas of southern France in June before, and was only seeing the later emergence at altitude. It is superficially similar to the White-letter (S. w-album), the Ilex (S. ilicis) and the Sloe Hairstreak (S. acaciae) but the strong straight white line and the blue spot near the base of the unh are unmistakable.

It is also appreciably larger and more triangular in shape, being a slightly greyer (as illustrated by 33693) and lighter ground colour than many of its Satyrium cousins. It also seems to me to be a neat and tidy butterfly.

 

The blue spot is not entirely blue - the close-ups show that it is around 70% blue scales on a black background. The close-ups of some of the w-album specimens also have small blue spots in the same place.

 
ref sex

observations

alt. m
33693 M a male, taking honeydew from a leaf, quite a greyish ground colour. 680
21114 F

On studying the magnified image, the end of the foreleg appears to be articulated and identical to the mid-leg and hind-leg and not hooked, which confirms that this is a female.

450
10799 F

clearly a female, based on the visible body shape.

185
10804 F

I had labelled this a female, possibly based on behaviour I saw in the field, but looking only at the photograph, the sex is not clear.

185
49409 F a female, surely, based on the body shape. 810
45179 ? the end of the foreleg is not visible so it is not possible to say whether this is a male or a female. 200
44463 ? the end of the foreleg is not visible so it is not possible to say whether this is a male or a female. 1550
46451 ? the body shape is visible but I am not sure whether it is large enough to suggest that 46451 is a female. The ground colour is a rather cold grey-brown and the white line, of the unh in particular, is very wide by the norms of this species. 680

 

33693_male_Var_12Jul13

 

21114_female_Var_28Jun10

 

10799_female_Var_23May08

 

10804_female_Var_23May08

 

49409_female_Var_20Jun22

 

45179_sex?_Var_5Jun18

 

44463_sex?_Alpes-Maritimes_17Jul17

 

46451_sex?_Var_12Jul19