www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

hi gang !
it has been a while since my last post, good to see so many findings even in September.
here, this season in the little field next door, there has been quite a lots of blue butterflies. Common blue of course and brown argus.
Then again, there were some very very tiny blues, which I first though they were female common blue...but they were significantly smaller than the usual. I am quite confused, if you could please help me with these two. Thank you.

You have a male and female Common Blue there

Hello Sonomoha ,
There is a thread running about these little beasties ! "Tiny butterflies " take a look .
Regards Allan.W.

Allan.W. wrote:Hello Sonomoha ,
There is a thread running about these little beasties ! "Tiny butterflies " take a look .
Regards Allan.W.

Hello Allan,
thank you for the tip, I will follow there

bugboy wrote:You have a male and female Common Blue there

Hello,
thank you bugboy. is it "common" to have the females so significantly tinier ? is it brood-relevant or just random ?

sonomoha wrote:

bugboy wrote:You have a male and female Common Blue there

Hello,
thank you bugboy. is it "common" to have the females so significantly tinier ? is it brood-relevant or just random ?

No it's not a sex related occurrence, it's more likely a result of poor or restricted diet as a larvae. This years lack of rain will have caused stunted plant growth and has resulted in a relatively large number of noticeably small butterflies from a range of species being recorded.

On average, females of many blues are slightly smaller than males (the reverse of most groups). In addition, they typically emerge slightly later. That might mean that forced early pupation due to desiccation of the foodplant catches females slightly behind in their development.

Guy