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Belongs within: Polyommatini.
Polyommatus is a large genus of blue butterflies found throughout the Old World. The common blue Polyommatus icarus has also been been introduced to North America, first being recorded in Canada in the early 2000s.
Blues (not all of them blue)
Published 26 July 2010
Polyommatus is a genus of about 200 species of butterfly, commonly known as ‘blues’, found in Eurasia and northernmost Africa with the highest diversity seemingly around west central Asia from Turkey to Iran. It is divided into a number of subgenera (recognised as separate genera by some authors) with the largest, Agrodiaetus, including about 130 species (Wiemers et al. 2010). As the common name ‘blue’ would suggest, the males of most species are a brighter or paler shade of blue; females are generally brown.
The majority of Polyommatus species lay their eggs on plants of the family Leguminosae. Like many other species of the family Lycaenidae to which they belong, caterpillars of Polyommatus show an association with ants. In the species in which this association has been most studied, the common blue P. icarus, the association is facultative only; the caterpillars may reach maturity without ever being tended by ants (other lycaenid species may require tending to survive).
When the caterpillar of Polyommatus icarus reaches its fourth instar, it starts producing honeydew from an organ on its abdomen. It will also produce vibrations that travel through the ground and may attract ants. Arriving ants are presented by the caterpillar with honeydew, in return for which they tend the caterpillar and protect it from predators and parasitoids. The caterpillar also possesses a pair of eversible tentacles on either side of the honeydew organ that it displays when it registers the presence of ants; displaying the tentacles seems to encourage attention from the ants somehow, perhaps by releasing pheromones (Axén et al. 1996). When the caterpillar moults into a chrysalis, the ants bury it under a light covering of soil and leaf litter where it remains until the adult butterfly emerges after two weeks.
Systematics of Polyommatus
Characters (from Bingham 1907): Fore wing with costa very slightly arched, nearly straight; apex well-marked but not acute; termen convex; tornus obtuse; dorsum straight; cell not quite half length of wing; veins 6 and 7 closely approximate almost from a point; middle and lower discocellulars attenuate; vein 8 absent, vein 9 from middle of vein 7, veins 10 and 11 from apical half of subcostal; vein 12 bent towards vein 1l, very close, touching but not anastomosed; vein 12 long, terminates on costa opposite apex of cell. Hind wing with costa slightly arched; apex rounded; termen rather straight especially in the female, in the male slightly convex; tornus well-marked, angulate, dorsum rather long; cell very short, not nearly half length of wing; middle and lower discocellulars attenuate; veins 3 and 4 from lower apex of cell, vein 7 from only a little before upper apex of cell; vein 8 strongly arched at base, terminating on costal margin well before apex of wing. Antenna short, not quite half length of fore wing, club long and gradual, pointed at apex; eyes hairy; palpi porrect or subporrect, fringed anteriorly; third joint rather short, bare, aciculate; body comparatively robust. Male with sex-mark: fore and hind wings thickly overlaid with hair-like scales that give a frosted appearance to the upperside; underside of fore wing with a patch of specialized scales at bases of interspaces 2 and 3.
<==Polyommatus Latreille 1804BH07 |--*P. icarus (Rottemburg 1775) [=Papilio icarus]BH07 |--P. admetus (Esper 1782)BH07 |--P. agestisR26 |--P. alexisR26 |--P. amanda (Schneider 1792)BH07 |--P. amphidamasP01 |--P. argiolusR26 |--P. ariana (Moore 1865)BH07 |--P. bellargus (Rottemburg 1775)BH07 |--P. betulaeR26 |--P. chryseisR26 |--P. chrysopis (Grum-Grshimaïlo 1888) [=Lycaena chrysopis]WF02 |--P. coridon (Poda 1761)BH07 |--P. damon (Denis & Schiffermüller 1775)BH07 |--P. daphnis (Denis & Schiffermüller 1775)BH07 |--P. disparO89 |--P. dorylas (Denis & Schiffermüller 1775)BH07 |--P. erigone (Grum-Grshimaïlo 1890) [=Lycaena erigone]WF02 |--P. eroides (Frivaldszky 1835)BH07 |--P. eros (Ochsenheimer 1808)BH07 |--P. erotides (Staudinger 1894)BH07 | |--P. e. erotidesWF02 | |--P. e. boisduvalii (Herrich-Schäffer 1844) [=Lycaena boisduvalii]WF02 | |--P. e. gansuensis Murayama 1983WF02 | `--P. e. sichuanicus Murayama 1983WF02 |--P. eumedonR26 |--P. eurydiceR26 |--P. evippusR26 |--P. forresti Bálint 1992WF02 | |--P. f. forrestiWF02 | `--P. f. zanganus Huang 1998WF02 |--P. gordiusR26 |--P. hieraR26 |--P. hunza (Grum-Grshimaïlo 1890) [=Lycaena hunza]WF02 |--P. icadius (Grum-Grshimaïlo 1890) [=Lycaena icadius]WF02 |--P. kashgarensis Moore 1878WF02 |--P. mauritanicus Lucas 1846E12 |--P. meleagerR26 |--P. nuksani (Forster 1937) [=Lycaena nuksani]WF02 |--P. orbitulusR26 |--P. phlaeas [incl. P. phlaeas var. eleus]P01 |--P. polonus (Zeller 1848)BH07 |--P. poseidon (Herrich-Schäffer 1851)BH07 |--P. rubiR26 |--P. rutilusP01 |--P. sarta Alphéraky 1881WF02 | |--P. s. sartaWF02 | `--P. s. laziensis Huang 1998WF02 |--P. stoliczkanusBH07 |--P. telicanusR26 |--P. thersites (Cantener 1834)BH07 |--P. venus (Staudinger 1886) [=Lycaena venus]WF02 | |--P. v. venusWF02 | |--P. v. lama (Grum-Grshimaïlo 1891) [=Lycaena lama]WF02 | |--P. v. lhasana (Murayama 1983) [=Lysandra venus lhasana]WF02 | `--P. v. sinina Grum-Grshimaïlo 1891WF02 |--P. virgaureaeP01 [=P. (Hesperia) virgaureaeG20; incl. P. virgaureae var. oranulaP01] |--P. w-albumR26 `--P. xantheOO90
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
Axén, A. H., O. Leimar & V. Hoffman. 1996. Signalling in a mutualistic interaction. Animal Behaviour 52: 321–333.
[BH07] Bálint, Z., Z. E. Horváth, K. Kertész, Z. Vértesy & L. P. Biró. 2007. Observations on scale structures and spectroscopic properties of Polyommatus lycaenid butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 99: 115–127.
Bingham, C. T. 1907. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Butterflies vol. 2. Taylor and Francis: London.
[E12] Evenhuis, N. L. 2012. Publication and dating of the Exploration Scientifique de l’Algérie: Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Articulés (1846–1849) by Pierre Hippolyte Lucas. Zootaxa 3448: 1–61.
[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.
[O89] Oberthür, C. 1889. Une note sur des anomalies observées chez des lépidoptères anglais (1re partie). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 6e série 9: lxxiv–lxxvi.
[OO90] Oberthür, C., & R. Oberthür. 1890. Lépidoptères dans les Pyrénées-Orientales. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 6e série 9: cc–cciii.
[P01] Pável, J. 1901. Lepkék [Lepidopteren]. In: Horváth, G. (ed.) Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazása [Dritte Asiatische Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] vol. 2. Zichy Jenő Gróf Harmadik Ázsiai Utazásának Állattani Eredményei [Zoologische Ergebnisse der Dritten Asiatischen Forschungsreise des Grafen Eugen Zichy] pp. 171–177. Victor Hornyánszky: Budapest, and Karl W. Hierseman: Leipzig.
[R26] Risso, A. 1826. Histoire naturelle des principales productions de l’Europe méridionale et particulièrement de celles des environs de Nice et des Alpes maritimes vol. 5. F.-G. Levrault: Paris.
[WF02] Wang M. & Fan X. 2002. Butterflies Fauna Sinica: Lycaenidae. Henan Science and Technology Publishing House.
Wiemers, M., B. V. Stradomsky & D. I. Vodalazhsky. 2010. A molecular phylogeny of Polyommatus s. str. and Plebicula based on mitochondrial COI and nuclear ITS2 sequences (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). European Journal of Entomology 107: 325–336.