''Euphilotes battoides'', the square-spotted blue or buckwheat blue, is a species of
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 ...
.
Distribution
It is found in western North America from
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
south to
Baja California Norte and then west to southern
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
and
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 ...
. This species may also occur in
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
and
Washington, but more study is needed to verify this.
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 16–17 mm. Adults are on wing from mid April to August in one generation per year. They feed on the flower nectar of various plants, but mostly ''
Eriogonum'' species.
Subspecies
*''E. b. battoides''
(Behr, 1867) (California)
*''E. b. comstocki''
(Shields, 1975)
*''E. b. centralis''
(Barnes & McDunnough, 1917) (southern Colorado to northern New Mexico)
*''E. b. argocyanea''
(Pratt and J. Emmel, 1998)
*''E. b. fusimaculata''
(Pratt and J. Emmel, 1998)
*''E. b. mazourka''
(Pratt and J. Emmel, 1998)
*''E. b. panamintensis''
(Pratt and J. Emmel, 1998)
*''E. b. vernalis''
(Pratt and J. Emmel, 1998)
Invalid Subspecies
*
'' E. b. allyni'' (Shields, 1975). The
El Segundo blue was originally thought to be a subspecies, but recent authorities consider it as a distinct, valid species (''Euphilotes allyni'').
[Rubinoff, D., T. Longcore, J.R. Dupuis, and K.H. Osborne. 2021. Genomic data support the elevation of the federally listed El Segundo Blue (''Euphilotes bernardino/battoides allyni'') to species status. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 75(2): 161-164.]
*
''E. b. bernardino'' (Barnes & McDunnough, 1916) – Bernardino Square-spotted Blue
*
''E. b. centralis'' (Barnes & McDunnough, 1917)
*''
E. b. glaucon''
(Edwards, 1871) (British Columbia to northeastern California and southern Idaho)
*
''E. b. intermedia'' (Barnes & McDunnough, 1917)
*
''E. b. baueri'' (Shields, 1975)
*
''E. b. ellisi'' (Shields, 1975)
References
Butterflies described in 1867
Euphilotes
Butterflies of North America
Taxa named by Hans Hermann Behr
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