''Glaucopsyche melanops'', the black-eyed 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 ...

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 in the western part of

Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alba ...

and

North 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 ...

. The length of the forewings is 11–13 mm. The butterfly flies from May to July depending on the location. The larvae feed on Fabaceae species.

Description from Seitz

''L. melanops'' Bdv. (= ''saportae'' Hbn.) (82 h). Above similar to the smallest varieties of '' cyllarus'', but the ocelli of the forewing beneath are enlarged, usually much more than in our figure; the row, moreover, is strongly curved and the ocelli gradually increase in size from the first to the fifth, the sixth ocellus, if present, being smaller again. In South- West Europe, ab. ''elongata'' Courv. (= ''marchandii'' Gerh.) has elongate ocelli; ab. ''marchandii'' Bdv. is beneath without ocelli. — In North Africa there occurs a considerably larger form with broader black margin to the forewing and somewhat darker underside; this is ''algirica'' Ruhl-Heyne. — Larva pale green, with thin dark markings; a brownish dorsal stripe and a white side-line, between which a dark green pencilling; head black. Until June on '' Dorycynium''. Pupa pale brown, with black dots on the sides. In spring, usually frequent wherever it occurs.

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 e ...

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

External links

Butterflies of Europe
melanops Butterflies described in 1828 Butterflies of Europe Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval {{Lycaenidae-stub