North American Butterflies and Moths List

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Butterflies of North America

Butterflies of California

Northern Blue (Lycaeides idas (our populations formerly referred to as L. argyrognomen))
JPG -- species photo

Northern Blue (Lycaeides idas [Linnaeus])

Wing span: 7/8 - 1 1/2 inches (2.2 - 3.8 cm).

Identification: Geographically variable. Upperside of male iridescent blue, female brown with orange submarginal spots. Below, hindwing has a thin black line along outer margin which is broken into small dots at vein ends. Can be positively identified only by dissection of male genitalia and by locality.

Life history: Males patrol near host plants for females. Eggs are laid singly on stems of host plant or in debris beneath it. Second-stage caterpillars overwinter.

Flight: One brood from July-August.

Caterpillar hosts: Plants of the heath family (Ericaceae) in the east; legumes of the pea family (Fabaceae) in the west.

Adult food: Nectar from flowers including yarrow; dogbane; orange hawkweed; and white, alsike, and hop clover.

Habitat: Openings in mixed evergreen forests, bogs, wet meadows, seeps.

Range: Holarctic. Nova Scotia west through the Great Lakes area and southern Canada; north to Alaska; south to central California, southern Idaho, and southwest Colorado.

Conservation: Subspecies lotis is probably naturally rare with low population densities; it is found currently in only 1 out of 7 of its historic sites. Successional changes in vegetation due to human disturbance choked out the host plant Lotus formosissimus.

Subspecies lotis has The Nature Conservancy rank of T1 - Critically imperiled because of extreme rarity (5 or fewer occurrences, or very few remaining individuals), or because of some factor of its biology making it especially vulnerable to extinction. (Critically endangered throughout its range).

The species as a whole has The Nature Conservancy Global Rank of G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.

Management needs: The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan for the Lotis Blue cites the need for basic biological and ecological information about this butterfly. Three steps to recovery are listed: 1) protect remaining habitat and butterflies at the only known population site, 2) establish 3 new populations at different sites, and 3) determine the extent of the population and the size of secure habitats needed.

References:


Matthews, J. R., editor. 1990. The official World Wildlife Fund guide to endangered 

    species of North America, Vol. 2. Beacham Publishing, Inc., Washington, D. C. 

    636 pages.



New, T. R., editor. 1993. Conservation Biology of Lycaenidae (Butterflies). 

    International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Gland, 

    Switzerland. 173 pages.



Opler, P. A. and G. O. Krizek. 1984. Butterflies east of the  Great Plains. Johns 

    Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 294 pages, 54 color plates.





Opler, P. A. and V. Malikul. 1992. A field guide to eastern  butterflies. Peterson 

    field guide #4. Houghton-Mifflin Co.,  Boston. 396 pages, 48 color plates.





Tilden, J. W. 1986. A field guide to western butterflies.  Houghton-Mifflin Co., 

    Boston, Mass. 370 pages, 23 color plates.

Author: Jane M. Struttmann

State and Regional References:


Brown, J.W., Real, H.G., and D.K. Faulkner. 1992. Butterflies of Baja 

     California. Lepidoptera Research Foundation, Beverly Hills, Calif.



Comstock, J.A. 1927. Butterflies of California. Privately published, Los 

     Angeles, Calif. [Facsimile available from 	Entomological Reprint 

     Specialists, Los Angeles, Calif.]



Dameron, W. 1997. Searching for butterflies in southern California.

     Flutterby Press, Los Angeles, Calif.



Emmel, T.C. Editor. 1998. Systematics of western North American butterflies.

     Mariposa Press, Gainesville, Florida.



Emmel, T. C. and J. F. Emmel. 1973. The Butterflies of Southern California. 

     Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series No. 26.



Garth, J.S. and J.W. Tilden. 1986. California Butterflies.  California Natural

     History Guide 51. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los 

     Angeles.

     

Langston, R.L. 1981. The Rhopalocera of Santa Cruz Island, California. Journal

     of Research on the Lepidoptera 18: 24-35.     



Miller, Scott E. 1985. Butterflies of the Califorenia Channel Islands. Journal

     of the Research on the Lepidoptera 23: 282-296.     



Opler, Paul A. 1999. Peterson Field Guide to Western Butterflies, revised 

     edition. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.



Orsak, L.J. 1977. The Butterflies of Orange County, California. Museum of 

     Systematic Biology, University of california, Irvine.



Stanford, R.E. and P.A. Opler. 1993. Atlas of Western USA Butterflies. 

     Privately published, Denver, Colo.



Steiner, J. 1990. Bay Area Butterflies: The Distribution and Natural History 

     of San Francisco Region Rhopalocera. Hayward, Calif.: Hayward State 

     University, Masters Thesis.



Tilden, J.W. and A.C. Smith. 1986. A Field Guide to Western Butterflies. 

     Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.



Tilden, J.W. 1965. Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay Region. California 

     Natural History Guide 12. University of California Press, Berkeley and 

     Los Angeles.

Northern Blue (Lycaeides idas (our populations formerly referred to as L. argyrognomen))
distribution map
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