''Icaricia icarioides blackmorei'', the Puget blue, 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 ...

native to the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

area in the northwestern U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It is a subspecies of Boisduval's blue (''Icaricia icarioides'').

Description

The Puget blue is a small blue and grey butterfly with a wingspan of around in 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 butterf ...

. The male has dorsal wings that are a silvery blue with a wide dark margin. The female is grey brown with diffuse blue patches at the base of the wings, with chocolate brown inner wings. The range of this subspecies spans from

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

and the

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest at ; however, the easte ...

in alpine to subalpine habitat to the lowland prairies of the South

Conservation status

At this time, the Puget blue has not yet been designated endangered or threatened by the federal government, but it is a candidate subspecies for restoration in the state of Washington. Populations in the prairies have declined due to the loss of prairies as well as the encroachment of woody vegetation such as Douglas-fir (''

Pseudotsuga menziesii The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

'') and Scotch broom (''

Cytisus scoparius ''Cytisus scoparius'' ( syn. ''Sarothamnus scoparius''), the common broom or Scotch broom, is a deciduous leguminous shrub native to western and central Europe. In Britain and Ireland, the standard name is broom; this name is also used for oth ...

'').

Threats

Scotch broom out-competes the host plants of this butterfly subspecies and as a nitrogen fixer it alters the natural nutrient balance in the soils. Because many prairie species, such as their host plant, the lupine (''

Lupinus lepidus ''Lupinus lepidus'', the Pacific lupine, prairie lupine or dwarf lupine is a perennial herbaceous plant in the pea family (Fabaceae) endemic to western North America. Many varieties have been described, several of which are considered separate sp ...

'' and '' Lupinus albicaulis''), have adapted to thrive on much lower nutrient levels the increased nutrient loading greatly inhibits the lupines ability to thrive. The subalpine populations have increased as logging activities have cleared land allowing the expansion of the lupine. The biggest threat to the subalpine populations is climate change, while the prairie populations are most threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. Land management techniques used to maintain prairies such as controlled burns, can either help or hurt populations of native butterflies. If timed correctly controlled burns can greatly increase that year's lupine crop, giving the Puget blue a better chance of success.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5985055 Icaricia Butterflies of North America Taxa named by William Barnes (entomologist) Taxa named by James Halliday McDunnough Butterfly subspecies