''Glaucopsyche alexis'', the green-underside blue, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest 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 the known butterfl ...

. It is found in the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

. The butterfly flies from April to July depending on the location, lingering in warm, lush meadows with plenty of its host plant, vetch (''Vicia'').

Subspecies

*''G. a. alexis'' southern and central Europe and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

*''G. a. blachieri'' (Milliére, 1887)

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

*''G. a. lugens'' (Caradja, 1893)

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

*''G. a. melanoposmater'' Verity, 1928

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Description from Seitz

L. cyllarus Rott. (= damoetas Schiff.) (82 f). Male above light cyaneous blue with a violet sheen and narrow black border; female darker blue with the black border gradually shading off, so that it occupies nearly the whole outer half of the wings. Beneath silver-grey (male) or ashy grey (female), the forewing with 5 or 6 large rounded black spots, the hindwing with small ocelli and in its whole basal half with metallic blue-green dusting. In ab. ''dimus'' Bgstr. the ocelli of the forewing beneath are reduced to 4; on the other hand, they may also be increased in number, or may be elongate (= ''subtus-radiata'' Oberth.). In European Turkey and the neighbouring districts of Anterior Asia the ocelli of the forewing appear to be constantly or at least commonly enlarged, the blue also being darker; this is ab. ''tristis'' Gerh.. Throughout Central and Southern Europe, North Africa and North Asia to the Amur; absent from England and Japan. — ab. ''andereggii '' Ruhl (82 g) occurs in the Alps (perhaps also elsewhere); it is a large female-form which is above entirely black-brown, the underside being dark ashy grey, with the very large ocelli placed in pale rings.— ''blachieri '' Mill. (82 g) is a very small form from Southern France and the Yalais which has beneath only 4 ocelli on the forewing and very scanty blue-green dusting at the base of the hindwing; above darker and duller blue. — ''coelestina'' Mill., nec Ev. (82 g) is similar to the preceding form; above very dull in colour, underside with blue-green scaling only in the basal half, the ocelli of the forewing reduced in size, those of the hindwing almost obsolete. — ''lugens'' Car. (82 g) has altogether lost the ocellli of the hindwing; the male is darker blue above, the female being entirely black-brown almost like the female of ''semiargus'' without any blue; the blue-green scaling on the hindwing beneath is entirely absent or nearly. — ''aeruginosa'' Stgr., from South Russia, Asia Minor (especially the Lebanon) into Central Asia, has the hindwing beneath entirely dusted with blue-green. — ''laetifica'' Pung., from the Ili R., has similar underside, but the blue of the upperside is purer and more brilliant in both sexes; the club of the antenna has a different shape (being more elongate) and is reddish yellow on the innerside, so that Pungeler regarded ''laetifica'' as being perhaps a distinct species. — Larva green or brownish, with reddish brown dorsal line accompanied by dark oblique parallel stripes which stand close together; head black. In June and the autumn on ''Cytisus'', ''Genista'', ''Astragalus'', ''Melilotus'', etc. Pupa greyish brown. North of the Alps, where occurs only one brood, the larva probably hibernates. The butterflies occur singly but are mostly common, being found on clearings in timber-woods and on wide roads, where they flutter along usually 1 to 2 m above the ground, with a slow, straight, flapping flight. They appear in the South in the spring and again from July onwards, in the North only once, at the end of May and in June.Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1317410 alexis Butterflies described in 1761 Butterflies of Europe Palearctic Lepidoptera Taxa named by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus