''Iolana iolas'', the iolas 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
northern Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
, southern
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, southern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, southern Europe,
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. The wingspan of the male is 18–21 mm. The flight period is May to June in rocky places at around 2,000 m. The larva feeds on ''
Colutea arborescens
''Colutea arborescens'' is a species of leguminous shrub known by the common name bladder-senna. It is native to Europe and North Africa, but it is known on other continents where it is grown as an ornamental and used in landscaping for erosion ...
''.
Description from Seitz
Male above a magnificent violet- blue, with narrow black border and white fringes. Female with broad black margin to the forewing and large black distal marginal dots to the hindwing. Under- side dust-grey, with feeble blue dusting at the base of the hindwing; besides the discal row of ocelli only the discocellular bar and two basal ocelli to the hindwing are distinct. The ocelli of the discal row are sometimes more strongly developed (ab. ''opulenta'' Schultz), sometimes more weakly (ab. ''debilitata'' Schultz). — In the South and South East, from Vienna and Hungary southwards to North Africa and eastwards to Persia and Turkestan; also in Spain.
Larva in the pods of ''Colutea arborescens'', according to the colour of the pod green, reddish or coffee-brown, with dark dorsal line accompanied on each side by pale-bordered blackish oblique smears; until June and again in the autumn, often in the pods together with earwigs and ants (Aigner). Pupa grey-brown, with dark dots on the sides, in a sparse web on the ground, sometimes lying over into the next year. The butterflies in May and again in July and August, in two (irregular?) broods; they fly, usually singly, in localities where the food-plant occurs.
[Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) – Stuttgart, Fritz Lehmann.]
References
External links
Euro Butterflieslepiforum.de
Iolana
Butterflies of Asia
Butterflies of Europe
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