''Leptotes cassius'', the Cassius blue or tropical striped blue, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family (biology), 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 ...

. It is found in North America in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

including the

Keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

south through the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Strays have been found in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, North Carolina and Virginia. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 20–35 mm. The butterfly species has an important role in

Marisha Pessl Marisha Pessl (born October 26, 1977) is an American writer known for her novels ''Special Topics in Calamity Physics'', '' Night Film'', ''Neverworld Wake'', and ''Darkly''. Early life Pessl was born 1977 in Clarkston, Michigan, to Klaus, an A ...

's 2006 novel ''

Special Topics in Calamity Physics ''Special Topics in Calamity Physics'' (2006) is the debut novel by American writer Marisha Pessl. Background Pessl wrote three drafts of the book, telling ''Kenyon Review'' that "each draft took about a year. It wasn’t so much that I was ...

''. The protagonist, Blue van Meer, is named in honor of the Cassius blue. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s feed natively on

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. Food plants on record are '' Amorpha crenulata'', woolly rattlepod ('' Crotalaria incana''), '' Galactia regularis'' and lima bean (''

Phaseolus lunatus A lima bean (''Phaseolus lunatus''), also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans. Origin and uses ''Phaseolus lunatus'' is found in Meso- and South America. Tw ...

''). It can also successfully develop feeding on Cape leadwort (''

Plumbago auriculata ''Plumbago auriculata'', the Cape leadwort, blue plumbago or Cape plumbago, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Plumbaginaceae, native plant, native to South Africa and Mozambique."Botanica. The Illustrated AZ of over 1 ...

'') or doctorbush ('' P. scandens''), which (among the

eudicot The eudicots or eudicotyledons are flowering plants that have two seed leaves (cotyledons) upon germination. The term derives from ''dicotyledon'' (etymologically, ''eu'' = true; ''di'' = two; ''cotyledon'' = seed leaf). Historically, authors h ...

s) are not closely related to its usual food plants.

Subspecies

* ''L. c. cassius'' – Suriname , Trinidad & Tobago * ''L. c. catilina'' * ''L. c. theonus'' (Lucas, 1857) – Florida, Cuba, Bahamas, Greater Antilles * ''L. c. cassidula'' ( Boisduval, 1870) – Texas, Mexico, Honduras to Panama * ''L. c. cassioides'' – Windward Islands, including Dominica * ''L. c. striata'' ''L. c. theonus'' (and consequently ''L. cassius'' itself) is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Leptotes''.

References

External links

Butterflies and Moths of North America
cassius Butterflies of Central America Butterflies of the Caribbean Butterflies of North America Lycaenidae of South America Butterflies of Jamaica Butterflies described in 1775 Taxa named by Pieter Cramer {{Polyommatini-stub