Azures

[HpAzures at aol.com]

All:

Just thought I'd provide a head's up.  Dr. David Wright and I have been studying the Cherry Gall Azure for several years now and are finally in the completion stages of our manuscript, which has dragged on for some time now.  We hope to have this published in time for the Connecticut Butterfly book so that a latin name is available.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of hoops to jump to meet all the requirements of the ICZN for naming new species and to satisfy the paper's "referees" who can be very very picky at times.

The thing to note is that Connecticut essentially has five Azures:  

C. ladon, the Spring Azure (AKA Edwards' Azure) flies statewide in spring, emerging in April (fresh appearance) and flying through May (worn appearance).  It has several heavily-marked forms.  These feed primarily on Blueberries but also Vibernums.

C. lucia, the Northern Azure flies in the northwestern hills at the same time.  It cannot be differentiated from C. ladon by observing the underside because the range of variation of the undersides is identical.  Though they are different species, only the males can be differentiated by examining the wing scales of the upperside forewing under a microscope of strong pocket scope (40X or greater).  I can differentiate them without the aid of magnification by the effect of light on their different wing scale structures, which is very likely how females can tell males apart where the two species occur together.  These feed on the same hosts as C. ladon.

The Cherry Gall Azure (species unnamed) emerges in early May (fresh) and flies into early June (worn).  It has very white undersides but margined ("marginata") forms do occur and patched ("lucia") forms also, but these are very uncommon.  The uppersides similarly differ from C. ladon but look somewhat similar to the Northern Azure.  Cherry Gall Azure caterpillars feed on the red leaf galls of Black Cherry trees in most of the northeast but some colonies have switched to other hosts in some areas.

C. neglectamajor (Appalachian Azure) flies in a few isolated places in SW Connecticut in mid-May (fresh) to early June (worn).  It is remarkably similar to the Cherry Gall Azure though it is larger, but feeds solely on Black Cohosh and is found only near this plant. 

C. neglecta (Summer Azure) also flies statewide but first emerges in mid-June, then all summer long until September.  It feeds on a very broad range of hosts but prefers summer-blooming Dogwoods and Meadowsweet.

Note: This group of butterflies remains poorly understood through literature accounts and many authors and organizations still stand by the "only one Azure" approach with the exception of C. neglectamajor and C. nigra (AKA C. ebenina).  Research is still pending on additional species, however two additional new species were named in the past decade: C. idella (Holly Azure, locally known as the Pine Barrens Azure in New Jersey) which feeds on a variety of Hollies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain; and C. humulus (Hops Azure) which feeds only on Hops and also Lupines along the Colorado Front Range.  Reports have it that yet another unique Azure will be named from the southeastern USA in the near future.

Hope this helps categorize the confusion!

Harry Pavulaan