Blue from Romania

[OwenE]

From a petrol station just north of bucharest. With my british head on I had these as Silver Studded at the time. My guide said that some of the accumulated phone photos showed the tibia enough to discount it. Now I have access to the actual camera photos and collins a lot of me is leaning back towards Silver Studded on the wide black margin of the upper wing

[Padfield]

I would have no doubt they are silver-studded blues (assuming they're the same species - the last one is the least easy to identify confidently on that picture alone).

The tibial spine is almost impossible to see in the field. It's easy on dead butterflies but really not on living ones! I have once or twice taken photos that I believe show it, but they are the exceptions. Its apparent absence carries very little evidential weight in my experience!

Guy

[OwenE]

thanks for confirmation.

[Roger Gibbons]

I grappled with the "spine" and came to the same conclusion as Guy (always reassuring) that it was of almost no value in IDing argus and its compatriots. FWIW I outline my take on this issue on my argus page:
https://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/htm ... 0argus.htm

With a little experience, argus and idas are fairly easy to differentiate on a view of either the upperside or underside.

Roger