''Leptotes webbianus'' (formerly ''Cyclyrius webbianus''), the Canary 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 ...

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 butterfl ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. 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 of ...

is 28–34 mm. Females are golden and males are dark with a blue area near the body. Adults are on wing year round. The habitat consists of coastal areas. The species flies from March to August on heights of up to . The larvae feed on ''

Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...

'', ''

Cytisus ''Cytisus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to open sites (typically scrub and heathland) in Europe, western Asia and North Africa. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and is one of several genera in the tribe Ge ...

'' and ''

Ononis ''Ononis'' is a large genus of perennial herbs and shrubs from the legume family Fabaceae. The members of this genus are often called restharrows as some species grow as weeds on arable lands whose tough stems would stop the harrow. They are na ...

'' species. The Macrolepidoptera of the world (Taf

Description from Seitz

''P. webbianus'' Brulle (— ''fortunata'' Stgr.) (77 k). Both sexes quite dark brown above with dull blue gloss. At once recognized by the variegated underside; disc of forewing beneath yellowish brown, with white spots before the apex; the hindwing dark grey-brown with light striation and an irregular white band; fringes spotted. — Only on the Canary Islands. Larva said to feed on the flowers of '' Cytisus canariensis'' and ''C. nubigenus''. The butterflies fly at a considerable altitude on the Pic of Teneriffe, locally very plentiful, but also in the plains, where they are met with more singly. Simony still found them high up in a locality without vegetation where they were sitting on the blocks of lava. They are apparently on the wing throughout the year, being especially common in August, flying about the branches of Tamarisk and visiting the flowers of ''

Adenocarpus viscosus ''Adenocarpus viscosus'' is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is endemic to the Canary Islands where it is known locally as Codeso del Pico. It can be found above on two of the islands, L ...

''. I obtained a specimen at Orotava in the immediate neighbourhood of the old dragon-tree, which was then still standing.

Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for editi ...

in 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

Leptotes (butterfly) Lepidoptera of Africa Endemic insects of the Canary Islands Butterflies described in 1840 Taxa named by Gaspard Auguste Brullé Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Polyommatini-stub