- Holly Blue
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Holly Blue 
Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Lycaenidae Genus: Celastrina Species: C. argiolus Binomial name Celastrina argiolus
(Linnaeus, 1758)Synonyms Papilio cleobis Sulzer, 1776.
Papilio thersanon Bergstrasser, 1779.
Papilio argyphontes Bergstrasser, 1779.
Papilio argalus Bergstrasse, 1779.
Papilio (Argus) marginatus Retzius, 1783.
Lycaenopsis argiolus calidogenita Verity, 1919.
Lycaenopsis argiolus britanna Verity, 1919.The Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus),[1] is a butterfly that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family and is native to Eurasia and North America.
Lycaenidae - Celastrina argiolus
In India, it is known as the Hill Hedge Blue.[2] The Hollie Blue is a beautiful butterfly, with pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots. In Europe, the first generation feeds mainly on Holly (Ilex aquifolium) but the second generation uses a range of foodplants.[3]
Contents
Taxonomy
EggThis species was originally described as Papilio argiolus by Linnaeus in 1758, and refers to the examples flying in Europe. In their monograph on the Lycaenopsis group of polyommatine genera, Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, list 14 taxa as valid subspecies names, plus many further synonyms to which they accord lesser status. According to Eliot & Kawazoe, 1983, these 14 subspecies are divided into four groups as follows:
- The argiolus group
Palaearctic & N. African
- C. a. argiolus
- C. a. bieneri
- C. a. hypoleuca
- =paraleuca Rober
- C. a. mauretanica
- =algirica Oberthur
- The kollari group
South and South-East Asian
- C. a. iynteana
- =sikkima Moore
- =victoria Swinhoe
- =herophilus Fruhstorfer
- =cition Fruhstorfer
- =bothrinoides Chapman
- =puspargiolus Chapman
- =albocaeruloides Chapman
- C. a. kollari
- =kasmira Moore
- =coelestina Kollar
- =trita Swinhoe
- The ladonides group
Far Eastern
- C. a. caphis
- =crimissa Fruhstorfer
- C. a. ladonides
- =levettii Butler
- =sachalinensis Esaki
- =heringi Kardakoff
- C. a. sugurui
- The ladon group
North and Central American
- C. a. cinerea
- =arizonensis Edwards
- C. a. echo
- C. a. gozora
- C. a. ladon
- =pseudargiolus Boisduval
- =violacea Edwards
- =neglectamajor Tutt
- C. a. lucia
- =neglecta Edwards
- =marginata Edwards
- =argentata Fletcher
Range
Found in North America, Central America, Eurasia and South Asia, it occurs from Chitral in Pakistan to Kumaon in India.[2]
Bottom sides of the wingsSee also
- Lycaenidae
- List of butterflies of India
- List of butterflies of India (Lycaenidae)
- List of butterflies of Great Britain
References
- ^ Card for argiolus in LepIndex. Accessed 14 October 2006.
- ^ a b Evans,W.H.(1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, ser no H21.24, pp 221-226
- ^ Butterfly Conservation A-Z of butterflies
- Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors) (2003) The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex [accessed 14 October 2006].
- Eliot, J. N. and Kawazoe, A., 1983. Blue butterflies of the Lycaenopsis group: 1-309, 6 pls. London.
- Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.
- Willmott, Ken and Freed, Tim (1999) The Holly Blue Butterfly. Butterfly Conservation, Colchester, UK, 20p. ISBN 0952260271.
- "Celastrina argiolus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=188523. Retrieved 6 February 2006.
External links
- Celastrina argiolus at funet.fi
Categories:- Celastrina
- Fauna of Pakistan
- British butterflies
- Butterflies of India
- Animals described in 1758
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