
Image from GBIF · CC BY-NC-ND
Species
Least ConcernSPECIES
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderLepidoptera
- FamilyLycaenidae
via GBIF · IUCN
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 673
- With media
- 606
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Collections
- UMNH, RBINS-SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE, KWP, YPM
- Recorded in
- Italy, Japan, Russia, France
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it its name. P. argus can be found across Europe and east across the Palearctic, but it is most often studied in the United Kingdom where the species has experienced a severe decline in population due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
P. argus engages in mutualism with ants that contribute to the butterflies' reproductive fitness by providing protection from predation and parasitism from the point of egg laying to their emergence as adults. P. argus adults emerge at the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight until the beginning of August.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Plebejus argus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.