www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I hadn't noticed before how iridescent the Small Blue is when photographed at a certain angle. Quite remarkable.

Fresh female Small Blues (like that one) do show amazing iridescence at certain angles to the light, as can brown females of other species of Blue when new (and Brown Argus as well). It seems to be a feature of the brown of the wings - maybe a layer of refracting scales that wear off to leave plain brown afterwards.

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks for the explanation Dave. Very interesting.