Species: Celastrina ladon

Spring Azure

Species

Invertebrates

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Mandibulata

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Lycaenidae

Genus

Celastrina

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.116204

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Dogwood Azure - Edwards' Azure - azur printanier

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Invertebrates - Insects - Butterflies and Moths - Butterflies and Skippers

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Mandibulata - Insecta - Lepidoptera - Lycaenidae - Celastrina - , probably a relict of hybridization during the Pleistocene since these species remain separate in their modern contact areas; or that the Southern New England Azure is a fully separate species. The difficulty with the former explanation is that that rarely or never hybridize now. This summary by Dale Schweitzer.

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

Butterfly, Lycaenidae.

Migration

false - false - false

Non-migrant

false

Locally Migrant

false

Food Comments

The primary larval foodplant is usually flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), but species of Viburnum are also very widely used. In southern New Jersey American holly (IIlex opaca) is apparently a significant foodplant, although this azure is not often found there in the absence of dogwood. Populations from northwestern New Jersey, southeastern New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts that are tentatively included in this species feed on highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) and Viburnum spp., apparently both if they are available, and less often on Prunus serotina flowers. With all foodplants, larvae feed mostly on the flowers.

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

G4G5

Global Status Last Reviewed

2010-04-09

Global Status Last Changed

2008-12-19

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - If the New England Azure is included, the range is approximately Massachusetts west through southern New York, extreme southern Ontario, southern Michigan, and presumably to Wisconisn or Minnesota south certainly to Arkansas and presumably into Texas and definitely Georgia, probably also the Florida panhandle. This species is absent from much of the coastal plain including the core of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and from some higher ridgetops and probably the colder parts of the Poconos. This is the common spring azure of mainly deciduous forests of the Piedmont, inner coastal plain, lower elevations in the southeastern mountains, and most of the Midwest. Inclusion of populations in New England to northwest New Jersey is tentative. See Taxonomy Comments. No western populations appear to be conspecific based on their appearance and scale morphology.

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.116204