Eastern Tailed-Blue

Description:

The Eastern Tailed-blue or Eastern Tailed Blue is a common butterfly of eastern North America. Males (like this spotting) are generally blue on the upperside of their wings while females are lighter blue to brown or charcoal in coloring, but there are also varieties of purple and pink found in both sexes. The underside coloration ranges from bluish-white to tan. There are two or three (outermost one often faint) black to orange chevron-shaped spots on the rear of the hind wings and a trailing tail off the innermost of the spots. The butterfly is 21 to 29 mm (0.83 to 1.1 in) wide with wings outstretched and slightly shorter in length.

Habitat:

Open areas, power line cuts, roadsides, woodland clearings, disturbed areas and grassy fields. Edge of a mixed pine-oak forest. This one was nectaring on Southern Dewberry at the Silver Bluff Audubon Center near Jackson (Aiken County), SC.

Notes:

These blues tend to fly closer to the ground when compared to azures that might be flying nearby. They also tend to like drier places than azures. Eastern Tailed-Blue also tend to often perch with their wings open. Azures rarely open their wings while perched. Larval host plants include Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Beggar's Tick (Desmodium spp.), Bush clovers (Lespedeza spp.), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), vetches (Vicia spp.) and Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis). Adults fly from early April until late October in four to five broods.