The holly blue (''Celastrina argiolus'') Retrieved April 20, 2018. is a

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

that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic. The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. Seitz describes it "Male above shining violet blue, only the apical portion of the costal margin being minutely edged with white. The female has both wings broadly bordered with dark, the margin of the hindwing bearing vestiges of ocelli. Underside silver-white, in the disc a row of black dots, some of which are elongate, and before the margin blackish shadowy dots. Egg very flat, whitish. Larva green or brown, marked with yellowish white, bearing catenulate stripes on the back, on segment 7 a gland to attract ants; head brown. On Ivy, ''Ilex'', ''Evonymus'', ''Rhamnus'', ''Robinia'', ''Genista'', ''Spartium'', ''Astragalus'', ''Rubus'', ''Erica'', ''Pyrus'' and many other plants; in Europe visited usually by ants of the genus ''Lasius''; in June and the autumn. Pupa mostly fastened to the underside of a leaf, ochreous with brown spots and markings. The butterflies in the spring and again in July, occasionally a third time at the end of August and in September, everywhere common, particularly at the flowers of ivy and brambles." In Europe, the first generation feeds mainly on the

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

species '' Ilex aquifolium'' but the second generation uses a range of food plants. The holly blue is the national butterfly of Finland.

Taxonomy

This species was originally described as ''Papilio argiolus'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in 1758, and refers to the examples flying in Europe. In their monograph on the ''Lycaenopsis'' group of polyommatine genera, Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, list 14 taxa as valid subspecies names, plus many further synonyms to which they accord lesser status. According to Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, these 14 subspecies are divided into four groups as follows: ;The ''argiolus'' group Palaearctic & North African *''C. a. argiolus'' *''C. a. bieneri'' *''C. a. hypoleuca'' :=''paraleuca'' Rober *''C. a. mauretanica'' :=''algirica'' Oberthur ;The ''kollari'' group South and South-East Asian *''C. a. iynteana'' :=''sikkima'' Moore :=''victoria'' Swinhoe :=''herophilus'' Fruhstorfer :=''cition'' Fruhstorfer :=''bothrinoides'' Chapman :=''puspargiolus'' Chapman :=''albocaeruloides'' Chapman *''C. a. kollari'' :=''kasmira'' Moore :=''coelestina'' Kollar :=''trita'' Swinhoe ;The ''ladonides'' group Far Eastern *''C. a. caphis'' :=''crimissa'' Fruhstorfer *''C. a. ladonides'' :=''levettii'' Butler :=''sachalinensis'' Esaki :=''heringi'' Kardakoff *''C. a. sugurui''

Common names

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, ''C. argiolus'' is known as the hill hedge blue. Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) female laying egg Bulgaria.jpg, female laying egg,

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

File:Celastrina argiolus egg.jpg, Egg File:Lycaenidae - Celastrina argiolus-6.JPG, Imago File:0 Azuré des nerpruns (♀) - Celastrina argiolus - Havré (1).JPG, Female File:Celastrina Argiolus.jpg, Bottom sides of the wings Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) male underside.jpg, Male

Range

Found in

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

. and

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

, it occurs from Chitral in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Kumaon Kumaon or Kumaun may refer to: * Kumaon division, a region in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon Kingdom, a former country in Uttarakhand, India * Kumaon, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran * , a ship of the Royal Indian Navy during WWII See also ...

References

* *Eliot, J. N. and Kawazoe, A., 1983. ''Blue butterflies of the ''Lycaenopsis'' group'': 1–309, 6 pls. London. * *Willmott, Ken and Freed, Tim (1999). ''The Holly Blue Butterfly''. Butterfly Conservation, Colchester, UK, 20p. . *

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q792871 Celastrina Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus National symbols of Finland