www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Our weekend walking (Perthshire) brought us another new one. I've never seen a blue butterfly in the UK before (though I know they exist, of course), but we spotted this one. It was very difficult to get a photo of it at all, and the one I got shows it just as it had fluttered up into the air. It's towards the larger end of small, and was chasing/being chased by a small pearl bordered fritillary. It seemed to keep its wings closed when it landed. What might it be?

I'd say that it has to be a male Common Blue. It's the only bright blue species you would encounter in that part of the world.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks Dave. Is the Common Blue white on the underside of the wing? This appeared to be pretty much plain white underneath.

Male Common Blues are silvery-grey underneath with patterns of dark spots and orange marks along the wing edges. Click on this link to see an example.

download/file.php?id=164246&mode=view

They can lose some definition as the butterfly ages and sometimes the orange markings can be very pale.

The male Holly Blue is similar on the upperside, and has silvery-blue undersides, but is not found in Scotland according to the species description below.

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species ... s=argiolus

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks Dave. Not like either of those at all, as far as I was able to see. Very white underside without additional markings. But if that's the only blue we'd see here, I guess it's not possible that it's something else.