The Appalachian azure (''Celastrina neglectamajor'') is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

in the gossamer wings family Lycaenidae. The male is light blue on the upperwing with a narrow, dark line running along the edge of the forewing. The underwing is chalky white and is dotted with small, pale dark spots. The very back of the hindwing has a row of dark spots running along the edge and contained by a faint zigzagging band. Females are similar to the males but have broad dark wing borders instead of the male's narrow ones. The adult butterfly has a wingspan. It is the largest azure in the area. The Appalachian azure is found throughout the central and southern

Appalachian mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and has a few isolated records from

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

, and

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. It lives in moist deciduous woodlands with plenty of shade and streamsides near these forests. Males often gather in groups near mud puddles by these streamsides. The species is listed as endangered in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

."Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015"
State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. Retrieved 19 January 2018. The adult butterflies only lay one set of eggs. The azure's eggs are laid singly on the flower buds of a host plant, though several eggs may be on the same plant. The eggs are a pale green. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

e range in coloration from a yellowish green in the early stages of life to a reddish brown. They typically have an incomplete dark dorsal band and the greener caterpillars may have pale white markings. The Appalachian azure's larvae are specialists, living on and only eating the flowers of the

black cohosh ''Actaea racemosa'', the black cohosh, black bugbane, black snakeroot, rattle-top, or fairy candle (syn. ''Cimicifuga racemosa''), is a species of flowering plant of the family Ranunculaceae. It is native to eastern North America from the ex ...

(''Actaea racemosa''). The adult azure typically lives for a few weeks from mid-May to late June. It is temporally separated from similar species of azure in its range by living as a butterfly after the similar

spring azure ''Celastrina ladon'', the spring azure or echo blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America from Alaska and Canada south of the tundra, through most of the United States except the Texas coast, southern plain and ...

but before the

summer azure ''Celastrina neglecta'', the summer azure, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America. Layberry, Hall, and Lafontaine, in ''The Butterflies of Canada'', describe the species: The upper surface is pale blue with an ext ...

. The scientific name ''neglecta-major'' was first coined in 1908 by Tutt as a 'form', describing the late spring generation of ''Celastrina argiolus pseudargiolus''. In their authoritative monograph on the ''Lycaenopsis'' group of Polyommatine genera, Eliot & Kawazoe treated ''pseudargiolus'' as a synonym of ''ladon'', Cramer, 1780. Thus the according to ''neglectamajor'' of specific status is very doubtful. Although this species is not threatened with extinction, its habitat may be threatened by the spread of the

garlic mustard ''Alliaria petiolata'', or garlic mustard, is a Biennial plant, biennial flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, north-western Africa, Morocco, Iberian Peninsula, Iberia and the ...

(''Alliaria officinalis''). Additionally, black cohosh is being harvested from the wild for use as a dietary supplement. Wild harvesting of medicinal plants can lead to low numbers of those plants.

References

*, 1983. ''Blue butterflies of the ''Lycaenopsis'' group'': 1-309, 6 pls. London.

External links

Photographs of the Appalachian azure
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4780833 Celastrina Butterflies described in 1984