''Icaricia shasta'', the Shasta blue, is a butterfly 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 butterf ...

. It is found from the northwestern United States to southern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

is 20–22 mm. Adults are on wing from June to August.Shasta Blue
Butterflies of Canada The larvae feed on '' Lupinus lyalli'', '' Astragalus spatulatus'', '' Astragalus calycosus'', and '' Trifolium dasphyllum''.''Aricia''
at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera

Subspecies

There are seven subspecies of ''Icaricia shasta''. *''I. s. charlestonensis'' Austin, 1980 *''I. s. calchas'' (Behr, 1867) *''I. s. minnehaha'' (Scudder, 1874) *''I. s. pallidissima'' (Austin in T. Emmel, 1998) *''I. s. pitkinensis'' Ferris, 1976 *''I. s. platazul'' Scott, 2006 *''I. s. shasta'' (W. H. Edwards, 1862)

References

External links

Butterflies and Moths of North America: Shasta blue
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q21276373, from2=Q28607962, from3=Q668872 Icaricia Butterflies of North America Fauna of California Fauna of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Butterflies described in 1862 Taxa named by William Henry Edwards