How to Know the Butterflies

The Cornell classic that taught America to name what it saw: every eastern butterfly described from life, with its caterpillar, its food-plants, its habits — and how to pronounce its Latin.

Home › The Gossamer-Winged Butterflies › The Spring Azure (Cyaniris ladon Cy-a-ni'ris)

The Spring Azure (Cyaniris ladon Cy-a-ni'ris)

Cyaniris ladon (Cy-a-ni'ris la'don) PLATE XXXVIII, FIG. 1-13 In this species the hind wings are without tails, the eyes are hairy, and the lower surface of the wings is pale ash-gray. This combination of characters will distinguish it from all other blues occurring in the eastern United States. But the species is not confined to this region, as it occurs in nearly all parts of the United States and in a large part of Canada. This butterfly exhibits a very complicated polymorphism, both seasonal and sexual; nine forms are now recognized and named; of these five occur in the East. The five eastern forms can be separated by the following table based on the publications of Mr. Edwards.

A. The spots on the outer margin of the lower surface of the wings blurred so as to form a continuous band (Plate XXXVIII, Fig. 2, 5).

B. The spots in the middle of the lower surface of the hind wings also blurred. (C. ladon lucia.)

Read next

← Scudder's Blue (Rusticus scudderi Rus'ti-cus)The Northern Spring Form →