''Polyommatus escheri'', Escher's blue, 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 ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfly ...

. It is found in Southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

Description in Seitz

L. ''escheri'' Hbn. (81 a, b). male and female above similar to ''

icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos sus ...

'', but much larger; the underside more prominently spotted, with more numerous ocelli, but the forewing beneath always without basal ocelli; the ground-colour of the underside in the male more shaded with grey and in the female sometimes darkened to a chocolate-brown; moreover, the discal row of ocelli of the hindwing is more proximal, standing nearer the discocellular spot than in ''icarus''. Southern Europe, from Spain to the Balkan Peninsula, northwards extending into the Alps. Females with the upperside strongly dusted with blue are ab. ''subapennina'' Tur. — ''dalmatica'' Spey. (81 b) is the form from Dalmatia; the male is lighter blue, more similar in colour to ''

hylas In classical mythology, Hylas () was a youth who served as Heracles's (Roman Hercules) companion and servant. His abduction by water nymphs was a theme of ancient art, and has been an enduring subject for Western art in the classical tradit ...

'' than to ''icarus''; the black margin, which is very narrow in ''escheri'' is here broader, and the hindwing above bears very weak traces of dark spots at the margin. If these spots are especially distinct, we have ab. ''punctulata'' Wheel. — Egg of the usual flattened from, pure white, with small projections at the corners of the meshes of the minute network. Larva until April on ''Astragalus'' and ''Plantago''. The butterflies commence to fly at the end of June, occurring in mountain valleys, singly but not rarely; they have a rather clumsy flight and frequent specially the beds of brooks. Seitz, A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) The length of the forewings is 17–19 mm.

Subspecies

*''P. e. escheri'' *''P. e. dalmatica'' (Speyer, 1882) Balkans *''P. e. splendens'' (Stefanelli, 1904) Apennines *''P. e. helenae'' (Oberthür, 1910) Charente-Inférieure, Dompierre-s-Mer *''P. e. roseonitens'' (Oberthür, 1910) Spain *''P. e. balestrei'' (Fruhstorfer, 1910) Alpes Maritimes *''P. e. ahmar'' (Le Cerf, 1928) Morocco (Tizi-n-Tiskrine) *''P. e. parnassica'' (Brown, 1977) Greece

Biology

The butterfly flies from May to August. The larvae feed on ''

Astragalus ''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to te ...

'' species and possibly sainfoin.

References

External links

Butterflies of Europe
Polyommatus Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of Africa Butterflies described in 1823 {{Polyommatini-stub