Lycaenids (Hairstreaks, Coppers & Blues)
This family contains some of our smallest and most brightly coloured butterflies. Sexes are often dissimilar with brightly adorned males upstaging the duller, often brown, females. Intricately patterned eggs are laid singly and resemble tiny pieces of sculptured porcelain. Woodlouse-shaped caterpillars are relatively inactive and often live in close association with ants for protection, for which they reciprocate by exuding a sugary meal from a gland on their back.
The Large Blue butterfly, however, is less symbiotic, exhibiting a form of parasitism of a specific species of the Myrmica ant. The caterpillars, being similar to Myrmica ants physically and chemically and possibly using other forms of mimicry, trick the ants into taking them back to the ant nest, where they either become a predator of the ants larvae or beg for food by acting like an ant larvae in what is known as a “cuckoo” strategy
Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
Family: Lycaenidae
Subfamily: Polyommatinae
Tribe: Polyommatini
Genus: Aricia
Species: agestis

Key ID Features:
Both sexes are chocolate brown with bold orange lunules, reaching the wing tips in the female but sometimes almost absent on the forewings of the male.
It differs from the female 'blues' in having no blue scales on the upper side.
The female is slightly larger with more rounded wings and a darker underside than the male.

Seen in UK: Late May-September

Unlike most other "blues", the Brown Argus has no blue scales on its upperside, both sexes being primarily brown in colour as its common name suggests, although the butterfly does exhibit a blue sheen when at certain angles to the light. Both sexes have beautiful orange spots on the upperside of both forewings and hindwings.

Text (c) UK Butterflies, used with permission
For more information click here

Location: Salisbury Plain

Photographer: Tim Tapley

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
Family: Lycaenidae
Subfamily: Polyommatinae
Tribe: Polyommatini
Genus: Aricia
Species: agestis

Key ID Features:
Both sexes are chocolate brown with bold orange lunules, reaching the wing tips in the female but sometimes almost absent on the forewings of the male.
It differs from the female 'blues' in having no blue scales on the upper side.
The female is slightly larger with more rounded wings and a darker underside than the male.

Seen in UK: Late May-September

Unlike most other "blues", the Brown Argus has no blue scales on its upperside, both sexes being primarily brown in colour as its common name suggests, although the butterfly does exhibit a blue sheen when at certain angles to the light. Both sexes have beautiful orange spots on the upperside of both forewings and hindwings.

Text (c) UK Butterflies, used with permission
For more information click here

Location: Salisbury Plain

Photographer: Tim Tapley