The blues are my favourite group and like David I find the real question is not what to include but what to leave out. So instead of trying to pin down any particular favourites, I'm going to pick my ten from species that might otherwise be under-represented in others' lists, for one reason or another.
1. Iolas blue,
Iolana iolas. This is the largest European Lycaenid and a truly magnificent insect. Generally rare, it flies in reasonable numbers in the Rhône Valley of Switzerland and if you know where to look it is easy to secure sightings in May and June:
2. False baton blue,
Scolitantides abencerragus. At the other end of the size scale, this tiny blue is found in scattered colonies in Spain and Portugal. I found it locally common near Antequera in April 2019 and was booked to go back for more this year ...
3. Dark grass blue,
Zizeeria karsandra. I suspect others will post pictures of the African grass blue,
Zizeeria knysna, so here is its eastern relative. This picture, of a female, was taken in Mumbai:
4. Another eastern species, found very locally in Europe but more commonly in India, is the grass jewel,
Chilades trochylus. This one was photographed near a rural school in Tirupur:
5. The African babul blue,
Azanus jesous, is found in Morocco (hence its figuring in European books) but also much more widely in Africa and Asia. This individual was also in Tirupur:
6. Many anomalous blues have very restricted distributions. None more so than the Piedmont anomalous blue,
Polyommatus humedasae, found only in a few places in the Aosta Valley in Italy. I used to pop over every year when I lived in Switzerland. This is the last one I saw, in June 2018, before moving to the UK:
7. There will probably be a few of these posted, but who can resist the Spanish chalkhill blue,
Polyommatus albicans? This is the orthographically irregular ssp.
arragonensis, photographed in Aragón in July 2017:
8. There is nothing to compare with the deep, matt blue of the male Osiris blue,
Cupido osiris. This is a particularly fresh individual, photographed in Switzerland in May 2014:
9. Blues show exceptional variation and a great number of named aberrations. I don't know if this one has a name, but it is a very striking individual. It's not obvious, but it's a mazarine blue, found near the Simplon Pass in July 2011.
10. Finally, not a European blue at all, though it is related to the European silverlines of the genus
Cigaritis. This is a common silverline,
Spindasis vulcanus, within the grounds of that same rural school near Tirupur in India:
Guy
