Common Blue; Dos Puntos

Description:

Male. Butterfly of the Lycaenidae family. The wingspan is 28–36 mm. It is a very variable butterfly. Male uppersides are an iridescent lilac blue with a thin black border. Females are brown above with of red spots along the edges and usually some blue at the base of the wings; the upperside may be mostly blue but it always has red spots. Undersides have a greyish ground colour in the males and a more brownish in the females. Both sexes have a row of red spots along the edge of the hindwings and extending onto the forewings, though they are generally fainter there, particularly in the males, where they are sometimes missing altogether. There are about a dozen black-centered white spots on the hindwings, nine on the forewings. It can be easily confounded with Lysandra bellargus and Aricia cramera. The spot close to the basal part of the forewings underpart, in the middle of the forewing cell, eliminates Aricia cramera. The lack of a black and white chess-like pattern in the white fringe on the outer edge of the wings fimbrias dismisses L. bellargus

Habitat:

Sandy path in an evergreen oak and pine forest

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/640 sec.; f/13; ISO Speed Rating: 1000. Exposure Bias: 0 EV. Focal Length: 90.0 mm. Flash fired