61.012 : 1580 : 7097
Lycaenidae : Polyommatinae

Holly Blue

CELASTRINA argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Picture

Life Cycle Guide

Picture
Description
Alternative Name: Hill Hedge Blue-India
Wingspan: 26-34mm
Worldwide Distribution: N.Africa : Europe : Siberia : Turkey : C.Asia : Japan : N.America
UK Distribution: Southern England : Wales : Ireland : Absent from Scotland
UK Conservation Status -
  • Least Concern - Red List
European Conservation Status -
  • Least Concern
Original Species Name -
  • Papilio argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Type Species - Celastrina
  • Papilio argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Type Locality -
  • England
Altitude: Sea Level-1900m : Europe : Sea Level-2600m : N.W Africa
Flight Period: Europe-April-June : July-August : Bivoltine : Two broods per year : N.W Africa-March-May : June-August 
Habitat: Woodland Margins : Gardens : Woodland Clearings : Parks : Urban & Suburban areas
Ovum: How often in early spring does one hear the non lep lover say "I saw a blue in my garden today" and usually it is a female searching out the Holly tree to deposit a single egg at the base of the flower bud,whereas in summer it is Ivy that is the commonest food plant.
In the wild I often find the most common host plant to be Dogwood although with a polyphagous larva a very wide range of plants is used.
Larva: The egg hatches after two weeks and the tiny caterpillar bores a hole in the skin of the flower bud before eating the contents.As the larva gets bigger it moves to berries where the tell tale signs are clear to see.
The latter stage larva has organs that produce ant attracting secretions although, unlike the ground dwellers, fewer ants are found in the tree so these organs are used intermittently.
Pupa: Spring pupa hatch in 2-3 weeks whereas summer brood individuals overwinter.The larva pupates on the ground.
Overwinters as: Pupa
Observations: The earliest of our "blue" butterflies to emerge in the spring, it is a common sight to find them congregating around gardens on Holly (Ilex aquifolium) the preferred early larval food plant, and around Ivy (Hedera helix)in churchyards in the summer,where the female  deposits ova on the flowers buds of the plants.
The butterfly is susceptible to wide fluctuation in numbers year upon year,possibly related to the numbers of a parasitic wasp which attacks the Holly Blue larvae.
The female varies in coloration between the two broods with the second brood having a wider upper forewing black border ,blue basal flush darker toilet-blue and the upper hindwing black costal margin wider and hindwing marginal spots more pronounced.(See photos 11 & 12 below)
Although the Holly Blue is generally associated with Holly and Ivy in this country it is in fact polyphagous,choosing numerous larval food plants throughout its range as well as being a highly mobile species, all of which might explain why this beautiful butterfly is so successful and widely distributed throughout the world. 
Subspecies
C. a.brittana Verity 1919-British Isles
Larval Food Plants Worldwide
Note - Plants hyperlinked in red below take the visitor to the relevant plant page on"Plants for a Future" website where further information like photos,physical characteristics,habitats,edible uses,medicinal uses,cultivation,propagation,range,height etc. are clearly listed.
  • Plant Families - in bold red below takes the visitor to the relevant "Lepi-plants" page where other butterflies & moths using the plants below are listed.
Larval Food Plants
Taxonomy
Kingdom:
Subkingdom:
Phylum:
Subphylum
Class:
Order:
Superfamily:
Family:
Subfamily
Tribe:
Genus:
Accepted Species Name:

Type Species-CELASTRINA:

Original Species Name:











Literary Ref:

Type Locality:

Forms/Aberrations:









Subspecies:
Animalia
Eumetozoa
Arthropoda
Hexapoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Papilionoidea 
Lycaenidae
Polyommatinae
Polyommatini
CELASTRINA Tutt, 1907
Celastrina argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
-
Papilio argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
-
PAPILIO argiolus (Linnaeus, 1758)
= Papilio cleobis Sulzer, 1776
= Papilio argalus Bergstrasser, 1779    
= Papilio argrophontes Bergstrasser, 1779   
= Papilio thersanon Bergstrasser, 1779
= Papilio marginatus Retzius, 1783
= Papilio acis Fabricius, 1787
= paraleuca Röber, 1897
= Celastrina kobei Tutt, 1908
= Lycaenopsis argiolus calidogenita Verity, 1919.
= Lycaenopsis argiolus britanna Verity, 1919.
-
Syst. Nat. (Edn 10) 1 : Title page : p.483 n.153
-
England
-
C.a. antidisconulla Lempke, 1954
C.a. aquilana Grund, 1908
C.a. clara Tutt, 1896
C.a. lilacina-lata Tutt, 1908
C.a. lilacina-suffusa Tutt, 1908
C.a. minor Tutt, 1908
C.a. obsoleta Tutt, 1908
C.a. paucipuncta Courvoisier, 1912
C.a. punctata Tutt, 1908
-
C.a.britanna Verity 1919-British Isles
C.a.argiolus Linaeus,1758-Europe-excluding British Isles : Caucasus : Armenia : Talysh Mts. : Kazakhstan : Atai : Sayan : W.Siberia :  C.Siberia
C.a.mauretanica Rothchild,1925-Morocco : Algeria : Tunisia
C.a.bieneri Forster,1941-Yakutia :  Transbaikalia : Far East : Kamchatka