The Small Blue

The Small Blue: A Beautiful Tiny Creature of Nature

“Everyone is like a butterfly, they start out ugly and awkward and then morph into beautiful graceful butterflies that everyone loves.”

-Drew Barrymore

The Small blue (Cupido minimus) belongs to the family Lycaenidae, found in small groups of a dozen. The species is mostly found in grassland and woodland edges. Both sexes nectar mainly on leguminous plants. It is not particularly blue despite its common name. The female is mostly dark brown but the male has some bluish suffusion at the base of its upper wings. The species is mostly found in Europe, Asia, Siberia, Russia, Mongolia.     

The small blue lay their pale greyish-blue eggs individually on the flowers. All over the flower head, they rub their abdomen to produce a scent which prevents from other females to lay their egg on the same flower. Because one flower can support only one larva.  Unfortunately, the scent evaporates after a day or two, so several eggs laid by the same or different female but only single larvae survive.

After 10 days the larvae emerge out and burrows into the flower which feeds on anthers and seeds. The fully grown larvae leave the plant and settle down in the ground and spend its winter. Most larvae pupate the following May and produce butterflies in June, but some remain in diapause and emerging in August of the following year

This species of butterfly has an interesting ant-attracting organ, which deters other insects from attacking the species.